The San Diego Padres are in the middle of a hunt for the NL West title. Sitting just three games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers, contributions from the entire roster are necessary to catch their hated rivals.
Unfortunately, Fernando Tatis Jr. has struggled lately, leaving a lot to be desired for the Padres’ superstar. Amid their series against the Boston Red Sox, Padres manager Mike Shildt was asked about Tatis’s struggles.
As Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune shared, the answer from Shildt was dodgy at best, as his answer didn’t help clear the air on the ongoing struggles from the Padres outfielder.
“He struggles because he had a bad game?” Shildt said. “Because I look at his numbers over the last six weeks and they’re pretty good – like a .400-plus on-base percentage.”
Shildt continued praising Tatis, this time saying, “Fernando has played very well for us. I don’t know what more to say. You can always have a knee-jerk reaction because a guy doesn’t get a hit. But I trust ‘Tati’ completely. I love the fact that he leads off for us.”
Overall, Tatis’s season totals look strong. He has a .259 batting average, 113 hits, 19 doubles, two triples, 17 home runs, 45 RBIs, 24 stolen bases, and a .790 OPS. His 119 OPS+ is the second-lowest of his career, but it’s still a good number.
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However, when looking at his statistics from just the month of August, across seven games and 31 at-bats, Tatis is hitting just .129 with a .250 on-base percentage.
A player of his caliber struggling so much, especially after the MLB trade deadline, is a lot more apparent than it normally might be. This late in the season, every slump stings more, especially for the Padres.
San Diego isn’t far behind the Dodgers for the NL West lead, and with Tatis struggling at the plate, making up the ground to surpass the Dodgers isn’t very likely.
Shildt’s comments on Tatis’s struggles are downplaying what he’s done the last week. While he turned things around in the series finale against Boston, going 2-3 with two runs, one walk, and an RBI, his recent production is still concerning.
Those concerns aren’t viewed as significant by Shildt, as evident by his comments when asked about Tatis’s struggles at the plate.
The Padres still have plenty of time to win the division, and Tatis can still turn things around. But the dodgy response from Shildt doesn’t build any confidence in either Tatis or Shildt, despite being in decent shape to take the division from the Dodgers.
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