I am still sad about the Cubs’ injury news, but it definitely will not be regarded as the worst Spring Training injury news drop of the day. That one is coming from the Padres.
Very bad news for one of the best young players in the game:
Fernando Tatis Jr. fractured his wrist during the offseason, A.J. Preller said. He’s headed for a surgery that could come with a recovery time of up to three months.
— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) March 14, 2022
That raises a lot of questions, and the lockout absolutely couldn’t have helped, but setting that part aside for now. The loss is just tremendously impactful, and while the Padres have played without Tatis before – they’ve got plenty of ways to cover shortstop – you can’t just take away one of the best players in the game from a contender for three months and expect there to be no impact (especially in a division with the Dodgers and Giants).
Among the implications here …
⇒ You know A.J. Preller will not sit still. Heck, he was probably trying to get some wild things done BEFORE today, when he knew this news would have to come out.
⇒ The Padres are pushing really hard on Seiya Suzuki, a Cubs target. This would seem to make that pursuit all the more serious for them, as they’ll want that bat ASAP. Makes sense why they were in on Nelson Cruz, too.
⇒ Also, that underscores the renewed urgency for the Padres to move Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers’ contracts so they can make other impact additions. They know they still have a win-now roster, and they know they’ll get Tatis back around midseason, but they want to make sure they stay strong until then.
⇒ You can’t rule Preller out from doing something REALLY wild, either. A trade you never saw coming. A shocking pursuit of a top free agent. So on and so forth. There will be fallout from this.
UPDATE: Oh. Oh no:
Probably not a great thing, when Fernando Tatis was asked when his motorcycle accident happened, he responded, 'which one.'
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) March 14, 2022