Ice water: so cool! Padres Fernando Tatis Jr’ reveals ‘Solid place’ he’s in after injury return following last demolitional outing…
Due to a stress response in his right thighbone, right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was sidelined for more than two months, but the San Diego Padres have nevertheless performed admirably as a team. But on Monday night, in a 3-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers, Tatis was finally able to make his successful comeback to the Padres lineup after much anticipation.
Tatis’s major league career hasn’t exactly been the healthiest so far. Due to a PED suspension and an injury that followed, he was unable to play for the remainder of the 2022 season. In his 2023 return season, he saw a decline in his batting average. But the right fielder for the Padres feels like he’s in a good position right now, which is encouraging as he seeks to bounce back from a 60-day injury list as soon as possible.
I’m in a really good place right now. It’s not 100 percent, but I’ve been cleared from the doctors and I feel really good moving forward. I feel really confident and I feel like I can do anything out there on the baseball field,” Tatis said, via ESPN.
Of course, the fact that Fernando Tatis Jr. isn’t fully recovered will cause some anxiety for the Padres. Therefore, there’s always a chance that his thigh injury could get worse. However, psychological preparation is half the fight when it comes to healing from injuries, so Tatis’s incredible confidence bodes well for the Padres as well as for him.
With great confidence usually comes great results, especially for a player with as much talent as Tatis does. Thus, it shouldn’t be long before he puts his substandard 0-4 night in his return game against the Tigers in the rearview mirror. Whatever the case may be, Tatis is simply raring to rejoin the Padres lineup and make an impact as they look poised to make it back to the postseason.
I can’t wait to simply show up and join the group. Simply augment the work that this group has been doing a little bit. Tatis continued, “I told them this is a special group the day I was heading down, and I know they’re going to be playing good baseball, and the boys have been handling it right.”
Can Fernando Tatis Jr. return to his 2019-2021 levels for the Padres?
Make no mistake about it, the PEDs aren’t what made Fernando Tatis Jr. a good player. Tatis already had plenty of natural talent. But the correlation between his PED usage and MVP-level performances in the past is very hard to deny. In his first three seasons in the big leagues, Tatis slashed .292/.369/.596 to go along with 81 home runs and 195 runs batted in. Since his return in 2023, his slash line has fallen to .265/.333/.454 — solid numbers, but not the elite production he once had.
Nevertheless, this drop-off in production may have something to do with him being less than 100 percent. The Padres right fielder said that he had been dealing with the injury in the affected area way before he landed on the 60-day injured list with a stress reaction in his right thighbone. Perhaps his lengthy absence and injury recovery would do him a world of good and allow him to return to his previous levels of production.
