Superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., who has yet to play in 2022 following March surgery to repair a wrist fracture, has joined the Padres on their current road trip, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune (Twitter link). Tatis had previously been working out at the team’s spring training complex in Peoria, but he’s now able to run and take grounders with his teammates. While his ultimate return date remains unclear, Acee reports that the there is ’optimism’ that Tatis will be cleared to swing a bat following a scan of the surgically repaired wrist upon the team’s return to San Diego next week.
Other injury notes from around the league:
- Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that Manny Machado’s absence from the final two games of the Padres’ weekend series against the Pirates was a result of a cortisone injection he’d received to alleviate issues with tennis elbow, a repetitive strain injury to upper forearm muscles most commonly seen among tennis players. The injection was evidently successful, as Machado is back in the Padres lineup in today’s game against the Cardinals. Ha-Seong Kim took Machado’s place at third in his absence.
- High-end Pirates prospect Oneil Cruz suffered what is currently termed a ’minor’ ankle injury while sliding into a base while playing for Triple-A Indianapolis Sunday, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The severity of the injury is not yet known, though he did leave the game. A consensus top-25 prospect, the 6’7″ shortstop has posted a disappointing .220/.330/.402 batting line through his first 191 plate appearances at Triple-A, though he remains a strong candidate for a mid-season call-up for a Pirates team that’s currently ten games back in the NL Central and isn’t expected to vie for a wild card spot. He logged nine plate appearances and three hits (including a home run) in a two-game cameo in the majors late last season.
- Left-hander Steven Matz, who hit the IL a week ago with a shoulder impingement, has received a cortisone injection in his left shoulder, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. Matz has gotten off to something of a slow start in St. Louis since signing a four-year, $44MM deal with the Cardinals a week ahead of the lockout, posting a 6.03 ERA (4.29 FIP) in 37 1/3 innings prior to his current IL stint. It’s a tiny sample, of course, and his issues seem to have been driven largely by bad luck, including a .350 BABIP (against a .310 career mark) and an elevated home run rate of 4.9% (3.7% career) without a significant change in his fly ball rate. Both his strikeout rate of 26.8% and walk rate of 4.9% have been better than his career marks (22.5% and 4.9%, respectively). The timeline for his return remains unclear.
How can you call someone who is 6 foot 7 inches a “short”stop???
Bill James could do it
Jumbo shrimp
“ Jumbo shrimp”
Perfect nickname!
Biggie Smalls
We have very different definitions of “something of a slow start”.
Matz has been bad.
Disagree. He had a couple of rough starts, but overall, he has been as advertised. He’s basically a 5 inning pitcher who will have an ERA around 4. He’s shown the ability to be better than that on occasion. If he can come back and stay healthy the Cards will have gotten exactly what they paid for.
Another bad waste of money on Matz.
Just like Fowler, Cecil, and on and on!!
I’m sick of John Mozeliak’s Low Hanging Fruit, Lightning in a bottle Free Agent signings that strap the club down financially. To the point the Cardinals can’t afford Championship Quality players such as Goldschmidt and Arenaldo!!!
The Cardinals just got out of a solid string of bad contracts when Carpenter left.
Now——Mozeliak is up to the same thing.
When are the Cardinals going to give up on Mozeliak and get a Real President of baseball operations??? Not another accountant who Never played Baseball!!!
Your example would work a lot better if the two examples of players the Cardinals couldnt afford weren’t currently being afforded by said Cardinals.
Dude the Cardinals are First or second place every year, couldn’t Imagine you liking literally any other team who actually has losing seasons.
Cardinals fans like you, screaming like the world is burning over a winning team, need to look at every other team in the league the last 20 years and realize how much better off you are.
Also if you just wanna watch a ateam throw money at a roster why are you even a Cardinals fan? Theres two New York teams and one in LA that’ll pay for a championship, every other team has to build one.
Christiano Arenaldo?
Wouldn’t have thought a navicular fracture would take so long to heal in such a young guy.
I think getting that shoulder fixed would’ve been a good idea at the same or ASAP right after the wrist.
Are you talking about Tatis? The navicular is a bone in your foot.
Navicular is another name for scaphoid in the wrist, doc.
Navicular is a common shared term for our 4 tarsals. Scaphoid is relative to the wrist only. Just to help clarify.
Oh hell ! If one of his ankle tarsals are crushed he’s not coming back nearly as soon or as good…, oh no I’m not even a Padres fan
My guess is that the surgery had to undo the month or two of healing that took place after it was broken but before it was medically treated.
Tatis was a complete idiot about the whole thing. One has to wonder if he ate lead paint chips as a child.
Mine couldn’t be fixed, just saying
The Pads offense desperately needs Tatis, and more. Grisham, Voit need benching, maybe Crone and Kim too. Cano dropped. Play Azocar regularly. Promote Robert Hassell, Campusano, Esteury Ruiz. Trade for someone. Find a pitcher somewhere on the planet who is unwilling to cough up 2 runs in the 7th or 8th inning every single game. They are wasting some of the best SP ever. But my Giants are even worse.
I’m probably overreacting.
Time to hold a seance and summon the spirit of Kevin Towers. That man knew how to put together a bullpen.
My luck I’d accidentally summon Moria’s Balrog
As long as it can throw a decent change and curve then I’m okay with that.
RIP KT… but Balsley would be the next best thing.
Voit has hit .260/.360 since returning from his injury. He needs to keep that up.
I was skeptical on the Machado mega deal but have to tip my hat to him today
There’s a lotta mega contract haters on here.
Shades of grey my friends; the Harper Mookie Machado deals have been great so far. Let’s keep that in mind in the offseason and try to add some nuisance to these boards
Cap: I agree, & he’s having a monster year. He’s been an offensive beast. I am curious to see if he will opt-out, especially if he continues this performance (I think he will continue).
Thoughts on his opt-out after ‘23?
His opt out is dependent on his 2023 production and health. He could win the MVP this year but he won’t opt out if he stinks it up or gets hurt in 2023.
If you assume he posts a year in ‘22 and ‘23 where he’s hitting 35-40% + above league average—you’d think he’s definitely opting out. But ‘23 is the decision maker for sure.
. Semien got 7/175 with a lesser track record and at a year older. MM would only be walking away from 5/150.
Believe Manny’s contract is backloaded such that he’d actually be leaving 5/$160m on the table if he were to opt out. Makes at least a little difference if not a huge difference.
6 months ago I would have said that Manny is absolutely not opting out because he was already on a HOF pace the first time he was a free agent and every team except the Padres still viciously refused to go to 10 years guaranteed on him. But after watching Corey Seager get 10/$325m with a lesser track record and a year older than Manny was I really don’t know.
@Clip- Doubt he ever leaves Sd…perhaps he can use some good play the next 1.5 yrs to leverage another year or 2 on an ext (like Arenado did) but nah I don’t see him leaving
** where the F is Ducky? Miss that guy
*** Haramabe agree wholeheartedly on your 2nd paragraph
Why wouldn’t he leave? He already signed with a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in 12 years, had a bad reputation going back even further than that and that he had no preexisting ties to them or their city once before just because they offered him the most money. if someone offers him even more money in a year and a half he’ll leave just as quickly. The pertinent question is WILL they offer him more money? They already had the opportunity to do that once before and took a hard pass and this time he’ll be 5 years older and possibly with draft pick compensation attached.
He’ll take the most money offered. Fans way overestimate how much players look at teams past success when choosing a contract. It’s about money. Players don’t see teams the way fans do. If Pittsburgh pays me the most and says they’re trying to turn it around, I’m going to Pittsburgh. Basically that’s it.
Yeah, man, you guys bring up excellent points. I really have no clue, especially as it pertains to SD. I mean, it seems (I stress that) that SD will actually regress from this point forward because they kind of went all in, so if they don’t win by the time his opt-out hits, I’m not so sure they will re-up the entire roster with a $250M payroll.
Nevertheless, and more importantly, I have no clue where Ducky is. I really hope he’s okay. I hope he’s just off hunting and enjoying life, man. Seems like a really good guy. Miss him on here. I know he owns a construction company & weather is warming in the mid-west, so perhaps he’s just really busy with work.
Hope to see him back on here soon. He keeps me grounded…lol.
PSA: Tatis is NOT a “fast healer.”
Gonna be nice to see Tatis play soon pads looking great to start the year
So what you are basically saying is Matz isn’t pitching well. So many meaningless stats to just say that.
What about a wrist injury would prevent him from running since March?