UPDATE: April 6 — Tatis was examined by doctors on Tuesday, which was deemed uneventful, according to Padres GM AJ Preller. The Padres will place Tatis on the injured list for 10 days and see how he feels. It appears Tatis suffered some labral tearing in the subluxation, but not enough to require surgery. So Tatis will opt for rest and rehab before returning to the lineup. We’ll see if this has any long-term repercussions but for now, it appears Tatis won’t miss extended time.
Tatis was examined by doctors who get paid a lot to be really good at their jobs. I’m not a doctor, but considering how important Tatis is to the franchise, you’d think the team would be a little more cautious with such a potentially serious injury. Bringing Tatis back early from a subluxation could lead to further injury and seems like the worst case would be Tatis fully tears his labrum, which would be very, very bad. So my feeling — and again, I’m not a doctor — is that Tatis likely misses more than just 10 days. We’ll see what happens.
As a fantasy baseball owner, it’s never bad to have a contingency plan if Tatis does end up missing extended time. I mentioned a couple of names below as good replacements for Tatis in the short-term, one being teammate Jake Cronenworth, who has been raking so far this season. Another name that could help as a replacement at SS is Rangers INF Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who is rostered in just 22 percent of leagues on ESPN.
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San Diego Padres SS Fernando Tatis Jr. was removed from Monday’s game in the fourth inning vs. the San Francisco Giants. Tatis appeared to injure his elbow on a swinging strike and immediately went to the ground holding his arm. It did not look good. We can only hope that Tatis is OK and the NL MVP hopeful will be able to get back in the lineup. Right now, it’s only speculation of the severity. We’ll wait and see if there’s an update from the team.
Update: Late Monday night, the Padres announced Tatis is was diagnosed with a left shoulder subluxation, which is basically a partially dislocated shoulder. This isn’t bad news necessarily, considering how bad the injury looked in real time, but Tatis should miss some games. He could land on the injured list. The Padres should have an update for us Tuesday.
The San Diego Union-Tribune spoke to a doctor who said that Tatis will likely weight surgery vs. long-term damage to his shoulder. This is pretty bad news for baseball fans, Padres fans, fantasy baseball owners, everyone really. It seems either Tatis will opt for surgery and miss extended time or try and play through the injury after rehab and risk potential long-term effects.
Here’s a video of the play and Tatis leaving the game. As you can see, Tatis swings and appears to let go of the bat a bit, which made his arm bend back. It could be his elbow or forearm. Ha-Seong Kim replaced Tatis at shortstop.
Fernando Tatis Jr. had to come out of the game after getting hurt on a swing. Looked pretty bad: pic.twitter.com/X49N72HSYo
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) April 6, 2021
Tatis entered the season at +850 on DraftKings Sportsbook to win NL MVP. He started the season 3-of-16 in four games against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first series, scoring four runs with one homer. The Padres are currently listed at +750 to win the World Series on DKSB. San Diego has the second-highest odds to win the NL at +390 behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (+175). L.A. is -278 to win the NL West with the Pads at +185. If Tatis is going to miss extended time, we could see those odds shift quite a bit. The Dodgers could become an even bigger favorite to win the division.
If you’re looking for an in-house replacement for Tatis on the fantasy baseball waiver wire, 2B Jake Cronenworth has 1B and SS eligibility on ESPN. The rookie has gotten off to a pretty good start to 2021 with three extra base hits and three runs scored through 12 ABs. Cronenworth is only around 73 percent owned in ESPN standard leagues. David Fletcher of the Los Angeles Angels has 2B/SS eligibility and started the season with hits in four straight games. He’s also around 73 percent owned.