An extension with star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. was reportedly one of the Padres’ offseason goals, though it doesn’t appear as if much progress has been made on that front. In a radio interview on the Ben & Woods morning show (Twitter link), Tatis said he and his representatives at the MVP Sports Group would “talk about it if the Padres come with something, but there’s nothing happening out there yet.”
While Padres general manager A.J. Preller was “definitely not looking to comment publicly” on the status of negotiations during his own Ben & Woods interview (Twitter link), Preller indicated that the club did want to “explore every option and possibility” in terms of a potential long-term agreement with Tatis. “We’ll sit down with him and his representatives when the time is right here, and kind of get a feel for where they’re at and see if there’s something there,” Preller said.
The fact that talks have seemingly yet to truly begin isn’t necessarily a sign that an extension couldn’t still happen before Opening Day or shortly into the season, as many teams don’t turn their attention to extension talks whatsoever until Spring Training. Of course, there also isn’t any immediate urgency to get a deal done since Tatis is under team control through the 2024 season — the shortstop has two remaining years as a pre-arbitration player, and then three seasons of arbitration eligibility.
Gaining some additional control (not to mention cost certainty) over Tatis would certainly be of interest to the Padres, as Tatis has one of the brightest futures of any player in the sport. The 21-year-old is coming off a rookie season that saw him hit .317/.379/.590 with 22 home runs over 372 plate appearances. This was despite a pair of injured list stints due to a hamstring strain, and then a back strain that ended Tatis’ season in mid-August.
Should Tatis continue to perform at this high level over the next five years, he would be on track for free agency heading into his age-26 season and be in line for a monster payday on the open market, more than likely over the $400MM threshold. San Diego knows a thing or two about spending big on a 26-year-old free agent, having just dropped $300MM on Manny Machado (another MVP Sports Group client, of note) last winter. Locking up even one or two of Tatis’ free agent years as part of a long-term deal could end up being quite a bargain for the Padres, and by that same token, Tatis could be open to an extension that gives him financial security now, yet also doesn’t prevent him from free agency before his 30th birthday.
Some larger factors could also be at play, as The Athletic’s Dennis Lin (subscription required) raised the possibility that Tatis and other younger players might hold off on extensions “with the idea that the next collective bargaining agreement will change the structures of club control and free agency.” The current CBA expires in December 2021, so assuming a new labor agreement is in place prior to the start of the 2022 season, Tatis would still have three years remaining as a Padre and potentially a new range of contractual options to consider from a negotiating perspective. Perhaps as a nod to how a new CBA would impact the status quo, ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reported yesterday that multiple teams were looking to lock up pre-arbitration players to extensions in the next few weeks.
Sounds like my bedroom.
Mine as well
There’s your solution, monty. What happens in Vegas…
Lol
Fernando has all the skills to get the largest free agent deal ever. Don’t pull an Acuna or Albies.
He better pull an Acuña or Albies. Otherwise what was the point of calling him up early?
All the skills? He has to learn how to field and stay healthy.
Defense is a real thing?
Defense is only a real thing in real baseball. Analytic geeks don’t like to talk about it.
Fangraphs has plenty of defensive metrics that your “analytic geeks” like to spout. DRS? UZR? OAA?
Yeah, and you can read all about how they’re “a work in progress” right there on Fangraphs. And, you can throw out any of those “zone” numbers and their derivatives.
Yea Chief defense is a real thing. At least for those that understand the game
Your ignorance abounds.
One half of a solid season? Has to take it down a notch to stay healthy.
He is a superstar, top talent
He may wind up being a superstar but half a season does not mean squat.
A 4+ war regardless is all star worthy but yes he needs to show he can play without as much wreckless abandonment at that level
Hasn’t stayed healthy 1 full season made 18 errors yea let’s give him 100 mil sounds right up Padre alley
If there’s a clause that is heavy on appearance and performance incentives, I’d be all for it.
Otherwise, he needs to show he’s not all flash explosions instead of a steady flame of hot lava talent and can put a full season together.
Heavy incentives on games played, at bats, hits, error percentages, awards, all that good stuff like they had in the old days. When I hear incentives mentioned nowadays, it’s a pittance instead of a big incentive.
He’s not doing that
As a White Sox fan I die a little inside every time I hear the name Fernando Tatis Jr. I think the Blue Jays have it right, just take a chance on every ex big leaguers kid you can
If its any consolation, the Dodgers gave away Yordan Alvarez for nothing too.
Yeah those teams are totally in the same boat.
Is that an antifa flag? If so, two thumbs up
Antifa = communists. But then, you knew that, right?
You got Shields for practically nothing. Preller ate the contract to get a prospect that hadn’t even played in a pro game. It could have gone bad just as easily.
The Sox have Elijah Tatis in their farm system. He’s reportedly just as good as his brother.
And the Quintana trade went strongly in the White Sox’ favor. It appears they won the Eaton and Sale trades, too. I hated the Shields/Tatis trade at the time; seasons since then have only made it much worse. The White Sox could have also had Marcus Semien (gave him up for Samardzija). Overall, though, I think they’ve done ok with their trades.
SD has him for two more years at league minimum.. how about waiting until he at least is eligible for arbitration.
Because it will cost more if they do it that way
Wasn’t that the reasoning for the Wil Myers extension.
Difference is the Padres paid Myers market rate for the last 3 years of his extension anyway. Hence me saying the Padres have to sign Tatis on team friendly terms.
If possible, yes.
That’s the only way they can justify calling him up early. I mean that was seriously bordering on negligence.
I called it “incompetence.” Preller cost the team one full year of his services by not waiting another – what? – 15 days or 3 weeks(?).
Preller will be gone before that happens, so he doesn’t care.
They were saying 15 days on the article about the Padres promoting him. Going to assume that was accurate.
It was just 15 days
See how he pans out this season. If he replicates anything close to 2019, then you start looking to buy out arbitratoin and FA years
As a Padre fan, I want this to happen, but not sure why he would go for an extension. I am not sure of monetary needs of the other extensions recently (Robert, Eloy, Acuna, Albies), but Tatis comes from a family that likely has a decent amount of money with his dad playing over a decade in the league. I doubt you see the other big leaguer superstar kids (Vladdy) signing extensions either. He doesn’t need to guarantee himself money early, and can go out there and reach free agency, or at least wait until he has established himself enough to get the amount we all think he is going to be worth. Acuna is already looking like a steal on his deal, and Tatis could be just as good or better. Only reason he would think about it is fear of injuries hurting his value, or he thinks he isn’t as good as he was last year – which I can’t imagine is the case.
I agree, especially considering the ridiculous rate at which MLB contracts have been escalating. Tatis is a good bet to perform well prior to being eligible for free agency and, if he does, his contract as a free agent could be drastically larger than any extension which the Padres would likely offer. Quite frankly, it would probably be in the Padres interest to lock him up before he gets to free agency. If Preller was a smart gm, that would be his best course of action. Unfortunately for the Padres, Preller is Preller.
I mean, it is 100% in the best interest of the Padres to lock him up… but Tatis has to be open to it too, otherwise you get the RedSox-Mookie situation. If someone wants to test free agency, only an insane offer is going to keep them from doing it.
The point is that the article references Tatis as saying that he and his representatives would talk about it if the Padres came up with something, but that the Padres haven’t done anything about it yet. So, apparently Tatis is open to discussing it, but the Padres are the ones who haven’t pursued it yet.
I agree about the article referencing FTJ being open to extension, but don’t think that Kervo’s assessment of his Daddy’s money having any play in his decisions. I think the Pads early confidence in him by bringing him in Opening day buys them a lot of love when extensions are brought up. Obviously, the Padres don’t plan on squeezing the kid, otherwise they had all the reasons in the world to bring him up a month or two into the season.
@EmbletonIsAClown
“I think the Pads early confidence in him by bringing him in Opening day buys them a lot of love when extensions are brought up.”
Do we have any proof of this? Teams have been extending their young talent left and right but it hasn’t happened after almost a year with Tatis. Also, the Braves and White Sox d!cking Acuña and Jimenez over when they called them up clearly didn’t hurt their chances of extending them.
Nope, no proof. Just haven’t heard of any Bauer-esque or Mookie-esque comments from either FTJ or Paddack camps yet, so… hopeful. That and the fact that Padres ownership has not shied from spending money, and I’m sure they will gladly spend on generational talent.
If a rookie starts spouting off about money, contracts, etc, his reputation becomes toast. You won’t hear anything from Paddack or Tatis; I think they’re smarter than that.
@EmbletonIsAClown well they are represented by Dan Lozano and Scott Boras so right off the bat that makes it pretty unlikely.
Oh and as for Padres ownership not shying away from spending on them, if they are just going to throw money at them they could have done that without calling them up early. It has to be an Acuña/Albies type extension to make calling him up early worth it. In fact, if Tatis ends up extending for more money than Acuña got even after the Padres “did right by him” by calling him up early while the Braves manipulated Acuña’s service time and after Acuña already has a ROY title under his belt while Tatis has some serious injury concerns, it will be a serious indictment of Preller’s inability to sign key players on his terms.
I don’t know about the other guys, but Robert’s signing bonus alone was more than most people make in a lifetime. I think it was like $26M.
Padres are winning the World Series this year
Having Tatis and Paddack in the majors to start the 2019 season was bordering on negligence. The only way to make up for it is to sign them to team friendly extensions. Which, considering who their agents are, that is not likely.
Will you get over it already? Fernando Tatis Jr will not reach free agency with the Padres after 2024. He will be either extended or traded by then.
You don’t know that he’ll be either extended or traded by then! If this rebuild goes as hoped, the Padres are contending for division titles year-in and year-out and they don’t have a replacement coming up from the farm who is at least close to as good as Tatis, trading him simply won’t be an option. Even if he is about to be a free agent.
Oh and if Tatis is traded at some later date, the Padres would have been able to get more in trade for him if he was controlled for 2025, so Preller screwed the pooch there too.
They can’t keep Paddack and Tatis if they are real deal
1 year in the pros and barely played 50% of the games and extension is a conversation? Idk seems premature
Even as a Padres fan, I’m inclined to agree. Tatis shows signs of becoming a star, but he’s also developing an injury history. Plus, how many people realize that he was in the bottom 4 defensively? I’d wait to see how this season plays out before handing out another “Wil Myers” extension.
The injuries are the only thing keeping a team friendly extension a possibility. I think the only reasonable approach would include heavy incentive bonus structured around games played. I think everyone would concur, if he’s on the field, he will be one of the best and a major draw… he will earn whatever they pay him.
No player will ever sign an incentive based contract. This is why Manny Machado chose the Padres over the White Sox.
I’m not suggesting strictly incentive based, but something close to Acuna with some big incentive to average 150 games for the next several years buying a few option years at 30/per.
The contract the White Sox were offering Machado wasn’t STRICTLY incentive based either. It was for more guaranteed money than anyone except the Padres. Machado only wanted the guaranteed money and so will Tatis, who has the same agent and is fully aware of his own injury history.
@Mike
Agreed. The whole point of signing a contract during your rookie deal is to get guaranteed money. Same for signing a long-term deal. A guy like Bauer may be open to it since he wants to sign only one-year deals, but if he got burnt more than once, he’d go right back to wanting 90+% of it guaranteed.
If he could sign for 3-4 years for between 35-40 million guaranteed that would be smart. He would still be young when it was time to go for the load. Sort of like Machado did only…….
Makes no sense for the Padres unless they’re getting a team option for at least 1 free agent year.
Exactly. That’s the only way Preller can cover this mistake.
What mistake?
3-4 years makes no sense. That’s less time than his rookie deal has left. The Padres don’t have any interest in setting him up to “go for the load” any earlier than they have to. If the White Sox sign Moncada to an extension, that should serve as a baseline for what Tatis should look to get. Maybe 6 years for $65-$75M, plus 2 option years at $22M and $25M. It gets him a good amount of guaranteed money, but could still prove team-friendly if he lives 4up to his talent. And if he’d rather bet on himself, that’s his right.
It may just be me, but I see Tatis as the kind of guy who wants to party, spend money and enjoy life right now while he is young. He doesn’t have a huge signing bonus to live off of. $10-$15 million per year starting right now might seem huge to him. He is currently looking at league minimum for the next 2 years.
His dad played in MLB. He can retire tomorrow if he wants and he’d be set for the rest of his life.
What? Where do you get that assumption? Tatis appears to be a very humble, yet fun loving kid. He came from a family w experience in coming from nothing to having money. His father I’m sure has disciplined him well to understand the concept of work hard now, get opaif, and play when his career is over.
They need to start negotiating an extension now. Otherwise, Tatis will be signing with the Yankees or Dodgers for half a billion dollars when he’s 25.
That will be Preller’s fault. 100%.
When it comes tp Preller, I am often under the impression that the voice in his head sounds a lot like Forrest Gump.
A lot of “you know”
Preller must go. He is awful.
For 40 a year? Let the Yankees have him while they’re still paying Stanton and Cole.
Dodgers are gonna have their own 40 mill guy in betts next 10 years.
I don’t think the Dodgers are going to go that high on Betts. Friedman has given out one 9 figure contract in his time as Dodgers GM. That’s Kershaw.
It is possible that Kasten could step in and make that decision for Friedman, like he did with the managerial position. If Friedman had his way with that one, he would have hired Kapler. Kasten overrode that decision in favor of Roberts. It may be wishful thinking that Kasten could step in more often, but it certainly is not unprecedented.
Expect AJ Preller to continue ruining this franchise.
I don’t. Quite the opposite.
The Preller hate is hilarious. Just because he works in a small market and has obviously made two huge mistakes in Hosmer and Myers, he’s not a horrible GM by any means. He has rebuilt a very capable team to make a wild card run, while boasting a ridiculously deep farm through drafting and trades. See Paddack for Rodney, Naylor for Cashner, Tatis for Shields(another mistake but TATIS) Gore, Abrams, PaTino, etc. Yes he’s made some mistakes, like every GM(see godly Cashman w Stanton and other injured players) but he has made the tram exciting again. We’ve been a crap franchise since Towers left. He needs to.learn.lessons on Free agents for sure. Let’s hope the loyalty we showed to Paddack and Tatis doesn’t blow up in our face.
1. He’s made way more than just two mistakes
2. Hard to give him too much credit for Gore and Abrams when they both wouldn’t have made it past the next team up if Preller has passed and when it was an open secret that Hunter Greene was his first choice in 2017. You could make an argument that all he did there was manage to not screw things up. Wish we could say the same about 2018.
3. Calling Tatis and Paddack up early wasn’t loyalty. It was negligence. And it won’t help us in any way.
Bingo
2 huge mistakes another intelligent Padre fan lol
Going on 6 years over 100 games under .500 as GM and keep hanging hat on two trades ignorant much
The bigger ? is how does a hipster like Preller keep his job going on 6 years trotting these guys at 2B Amarista, Gyorko, Middlebrooks, Pierla, Schimpf, Solarte, Asuaje, Spangy, Urias, Garcia, France, Kinsler. These are most of 2B genius Preller trots out going on 6 years