Did Sunday Night Show Fernando Tatis Jr is Finally Ready to Turn a Corner?

The San Diego Padres won a game and, subsequently, a series against the Texas Rangers on Sunday evening. That, in itself, is a positive given how things have gone for the last month-and-a-half. More important, though, was the role that Fernando Tatis Jr. played in the win. 

We've discussed Tatis at length in the last couple of months. After a scorching start to the year, he's fallen off virtually everywhere but his defense. That's led to some speculation on his approach and his mechanics as we wonder exactly what needs to get sorted in order to get him back on that superstar trajectory on which he placed himself out of the gate. Sunday's game gave us a glimpse of what Tatis looks like when he's going right, however. 

Across five plate appearances against the Rangers, Tatis reached four times. He walked twice and recorded a single and a double, with the latter serving to knock in one of the Padres' four runs on the evening. The walk component isn't necessarily a surprise; Tatis has maintained a steady approach that has allowed him to continue to reach base even in the midst of these months-long struggles. The contact, however, is what leads us to recover a little bit of confidence that the superstar is still in there in 2025. 

At 106.7 MPH, Tatis had the game's hardest hit ball. It was a first-inning single off a 98.9 MPH pitch that carried a .980 expected batting average. After one of his walks in the third, he came back in the fourth with a 102.2 MPH double that knocked in what would be the winning run for San Diego: 

That one was against an off-speed pitch (something Tatis has struggled against during this stretch) and carried a .920 xBA. It was absolutely laced. Both swings — at 84.8 and 77.6 MPH — checked in well above Tatis' average swing speed this year, indicating a little bit of confidence. Perhaps he's found a little bit of juice after being named to the National League All-Star roster. 

Whether it's actually an increased confidence or starting to lock in, the challenge for Tatis will now be to carry such a performance over into the coming days. It's not the first time since he went cold that we've seen Tatis have a good game in isolation. He had a four-hit effort back on June 15th. But, he's also recorded hits in seven of his last eight games with some walks mixed in. That follows a stretch where he failed to record a hit in seven of 10 games. 

It's obviously something we'll be keeping a keen eye on moving forward. There's some question as to the validity of Tatis' inclusion in Atlanta given his struggles since mid-May. But his fWAR, at 3.5, doesn't lie. Some sustained offensive production, though, could drive even that figure up in conjunction with his defensive excellence and help him regain his status as one of the league's top hitters. 

This all feels like a uniquely baseball thing. It isn't what Fernando Tatis Jr. did on Sunday. It's what he does next.