The Padres’ deep postseason run has an added bonus: in 2023, they will get to play 12 more games with their great shortstop. Fernando Tatis Jr.’s suspension has a one-game count for each Padres postseason game, thus the team has an approximate timeline for Tatis’ return. Tatis might make his comeback on April 20th, which is the first day of a four-game series in Arizona, if the schedule holds up as it presently does (though that date is subject to change with any rainouts or other postponements).
Padres manager Bob Melvin stated, “I’ve had dialogue with him here throughout the postseason.” “His only concern is assisting his team and returning.” I believe that he now sees things differently as well. He will have an intense desire to participate in this and push his squad to achieve more success than we accomplished in 2022.
What he’s focused on right now is just getting healthy, getting back and being part of this group. Because he missed it.”
Without Tatis in the lineup, the Padres still managed to reach the National League Championship Series before bowing out in five games to Philadelphia.
Tatis had another surgery on his left wrist during the Padres’ postseason run, hoping to strengthen it for the long run. General manager A.J. Preller discussed the procedure for the first time during the team’s end-of-season news conference on Tuesday. “There was a question about more so the long term, over the course of the next 7-10 years, how everything would heal and would hold up,” Preller explained. “After consulting with numerous professionals around the nation, Tatis finally decided to proceed with the repair, replacing the old screw with a new one. It seemed to have gone really nicely for everyone.”
Tatis had surgery on his left shoulder in September to repair his labrum, and this was an additional procedure. He suffered from several subluxations of the shoulder throughout the 2021 season; the purpose of the surgery on his left shoulder, which has a 4-6 month recovery period, is to stop him from dislocating his shoulder any more. The Padres believe that Tatis will be fully recovered for the start of Spring Training in spite of the two recent surgeries. Tatis will be allowed to participate in Padres training during his suspension, but he will need to stay away from the team once the regular season starts.
Tatis will be out of the team’s first 20 games of the upcoming season overall. “Limiting the time that he’s away from the game, away from our team, that’s a positive for sure,” Preller stated. “Getting a couple more weeks of a hopefully healthy Fernando Tatis Jr. should be a positive for us.” Naturally, there’s also the age-old query of where Tatis might play in the upcoming campaign. In 2022, Ha-Seong Kim showed himself to be a valuable asset and a superb defensive shortstop.