Crazy though it sounds, it was a good thing — on balance — that Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended for testing positive for a banned substance, whether or not he meant to consume the testosterone-boosting anabolic steroid that's banned also by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Major League Baseball is better for it. And, proving that life can throw knuckleballs worthy of Phil Niekro, the suspension ultimately benefited young Tatis and perhaps the Padres.
When a star player as widely popular and profitable as Tatis loses 80 games and some $3 million in pay, it shows MLB and its proxies can be trusted to enforce its drug policy.
Shocking truth: powerful folks are sometimes allowed to skate.
The suspension sent a firm message not only to Tatis but all ballplayers: We have rules, they have teeth and no one — not even our fastest-rising trans-continental star — is exempt.
Suspending Tatis was the last thing MLB wanted to do. He made baseball look youthful, edgy and fun, in part because the league had been marketing him for two years and most especially to young people.
Entering the 2021 season, the Padres shortstop joined Hall of Famer Derek Jeter and veteran Bryce Harper as the only ballplayers to lead an MLB-themed ad campaign of the league's longtime sports-drink partner.
"He's already the face of baseball," Padres Chairman Peter Seidler said that February, in both celebrating and explaining the new contract that guaranteed Tatis $340 million. By October 2021, more jerseys of Tatis Jr., had been sold that year than of any MLB player other than veteran star Mookie Betts, a former MVP and World Series champion.
As jarring as Tatis' suspension was for MLB, now that's it about to end — the 24-year-old is to rejoin the Padres on Thursday in Phoenix — the $11-billion industry can point to a solid victory. For all of its loopholes on the front end, a drug policy hashed out by both MLB players and management did its job. Players who made sure not to take banned substances were protected.
No doubt the suspension stung Tatis. He said he agonized as he watched the 2022 Padres drive to the postseason without him. He said he let the team and fans down, though he maintained that his lone offense was not knowing that a cream he used to treat ringworm contained the banned performance-enhancing substance.
His unwelcomed down time was a gift of sorts, however.
In deciding how to get his career back on track, Tatis made two beneficial decisions.
In September, he had shoulder surgery, something the Padres had encouraged a year earlier.
In October, he had surgery to revise a wrist procedure done seven months earlier. The first surgery repaired damage caused by his motorcycle misadventures the previous offseason.
Go back to August when many folks argued Tatis' suspension dealt a critical blow to the team's World Series pursuit.
In retrospect, to argue Tatis would've led the 2022 Padres to the franchise's first World Series title is to believe he would've overcome a) the rust of not having played all year, b) wrist issues that would lead to a second surgery, c) potential setbacks to a shoulder that had popped out several times.
And that's to say nothing of the pitching-rich Astros, who had homefield advantage and won the World Series in six games.
This spring brought the first fruits of Tatis' surgeries.
There were no reprisals of the painful shoulder episodes that dated back several years and were increasing in frequency. The twice-repaired wrist held up.
His recent barrage of six homers in three Pacific Coast League games suggested not only that a demonstrably clean Tatis can be a force to behold but that he is healthier than ever with the Padres.
Remember, Tatis said it was early in his minor league career that he first injured the left shoulder.
Doctors said that absent the surgery, painful shoulder setbacks were sure to recur.
Admittedly, the 2023 Padres likely have missed not having Tatis the past two-plus weeks. Perhaps they would have an additional victory or two.
His stand-ins in right field have batted .170 with zero home runs, three walks and two-plus defensive miscues in 17 games entering Monday.
But that's the point of an 80-game suspension, which Tatis declined to appeal. It has to sting.
The Padres still should earn no less than a wild card and contend for the first-round bye that would come with winning their first West title of the Seidler-Preller Era.
Tatis has a lot to prove.
Improving his chances and the Padres' outlook, he's likely the healthiest he's been in brown pinstripes. The clouds of August have lifted.
