LOS ANGELES – Fernando Tatis Jr. attended his third live batting practice from Dodger Stadium early Friday afternoon and was scheduled to fly to San Antonio to participate. San Diego Padres‘Double-A’s branch later that night, starting rehab mission this weekend.
Tatis, 23, has had a full season of left wrist surgery but is essentially out of recovery time and is now focusing on getting time back and the legs underneath. Tatis went through what is expected to be his final scan of his fractured scapula early in the season, and Padres manager Bob Melvin said “everything looks fine.”
Tatis, who has shown encouraging signs in previous sessions, may be a week or two away from returning.
“I don’t think we have the numbers we need for Tatis’ detox,” Melvin said. “Also, you also want to bring a guy back here when he swings pretty well. We’re at the end of the season; it’s not going to be a three-week process to get him back here, so we’ll just have to do it daily and see where he is physically and how he feels when he eats his plate.”
Tatis will finally return to a reshaped Padres team that dominated the headlines earlier this week, acquisition Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Brandon Drury and Josh Hader before the transaction deadline. Tatis will be near the top of the formation along with Soto and Manny Machadoforming arguably the most ruthless trio of leaders in the pro leagues – but he’ll also be moving around.
Tatis will see time spent in the center zone and in the designated assassin slot during his rehabilitation, in addition to his natural sub, and will do the same when he back to the team of the big league. Melvin wants the flexibility of continuing to give Ha-seong Kim Starting from a weak point, but also do not want to put too much burden on Tatis, due to the physical requirements of this position.
“This is where he’s been long enough that we really don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and make sure we go at the right time and he’s healthy, let’s make sure we don’t give him too much ,” Melvin said.
