The San Diego Padres activated him on the shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. on Friday, as expected, placing him in 2nd place in the team for their long-awaited game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park.
Defender Tucupita Marcano was chosen as the team’s alternative place to take the place on the active list.
Tatis had spent the last 10 days on the injured list recovering from a subluxation in his left shoulder, which he suffered while making a violent swing on April 5th. It was the third incident reported with that shoulder in 23 days, a problem. Of course, Tatis has been involved throughout his professional career.
Subluxations, which occur when the shoulder essentially slips from its position in the grip, but do not dislocate completely, often lead to surgery. But there are also cases where players can manage the disease for an extended period of time. The parents hope that Tatis can be in the last group. But that may require some adjustments to his game, especially keeping both hands on the bat more often to avoid wild swings and misses that could leave his shoulder vulnerable again.
“The reality is you go out there and the game speeds up, adrenaline, all that stuff,” said Padres manager Jayce Tingler. “We’ve tried to use the last seven, the last 10 days, to discuss with the medical team how we can best minimize the risk. Look, these things are going to happen in the game. And so we’re trying to do everything we can to talk about that. are some of the danger points or high risk levels.The last thing we want is here in a few days, a few weeks, a few months, something happens again.We have a long year this year and obviously has a long career “We tried to cover those things with the full understanding that he would go out there and be a ball player.”
The 22-year-old Tatis beat .301 / .374 / .582 with 39 home runs, 27 stolen bases and eight triples in his first 143 games from 2019 to 2020, compiling 6.5 wins FanGraphs over replacement. Before the start of the 2021 season, he had already obtained major marketing offers with Gatorade and Adidas, awarded the cover of MLB The Show and signed a 14-year extension, with 340 million dollars.
But Tatis has accumulated just three hits in 16 bat-bats in his first four games of the regular season this year, hitting six times and making five errors. Some scouts who followed him carefully believe that he favors his left shoulder, which caused him problems several times during spring training.
Tatis suffered visible pain immediately after the subluxation, but Padres general manager AJ Preller said Tatis felt much better shortly afterwards and was eager to return to the starting line the next day. . Tatis’s MRI, Preller said, showed a slight labral rupture that was consistent with a subluxation, but not much different from what it had shown on his previous physique, adding that Tatis had regained full range of motion and would try to manage the lesion after a short period of IL.
Friday marked the first day he was eligible to return.