The Padres’ $340M question mark: Fernando Tatis Jr. begins his long road to redemption

SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. wore a vibrant crimson polo and a bleak expression. He sat atop the San Diego Padres’ dugout bench, with dozens of cameras and smartphones surrounding him, and spoke with each regret and acceptance. He mentioned he understood why youngsters may now not admire him, why his personal staff may now not belief him, why followers may doubt the authenticity of his prior greatness.

However Tatis stored going again to at least one essential aspect on Tuesday, whereas publicly addressing his steroid-related suspension for the primary time: His age.

It wasn’t an excuse for his actions, an try and rationalize his missteps behind youthful ignorance — it was an acknowledgment that there is likely to be time to make up for it. It is what makes this all so distinctive, so fascinating and, probably, so revealing.

“There is a great distance going ahead,” Tatis mentioned. “There is a very great distance going ahead. I am gonna bear in mind how this feels, and I am gonna make myself not ever be on this place ever once more. I do know I’ve a variety of love that I’ve to realize again. I’ve a variety of work to do.”

Tatis is barely 23, and but he has already established himself as a celebrity. He was the primary participant in baseball historical past to amass 80 house runs and 50 stolen bases inside his first 300 profession video games, and his marketability was equally singular. Tatis had already secured high-profile offers with Gatorade and Adidas. He was the duvet athlete for the online game “MLB The Present 21.” He had a signature pair of sun shades with the corporate 100 P.c, and was featured in commercials for main manufacturers reminiscent of BMW, Dairy Queen, Jack In The Field and PlayStation.

His smile, charisma, pedigree and expertise made him the face of Main League Baseball’s efforts to attraction to a youthful viewers. Now the shine has worn off and the mystique tarnished. The query that continues to be: Will it ever be totally restored?

“It is robust,” Padres beginning pitcher Joe Musgrove mentioned. “I feel step one to that’s being trustworthy and understanding that errors had been made. Individuals make errors on a regular basis. Everyone on the market who’s reaming him about what occurred — I am positive they’ve made their fair proportion of errors, and since he’s who he’s and he is received what he is received, it is much more consideration. One mistake would not should outline your life.”

We have seen massive names beforehand get suspended for using performance-enhancing substances, most notably Alex Rodriguez, but additionally Ryan Braun, Robinson Cano, Manny Ramirez, Miguel Tejada and Rafael Palmeiro. However excluding Braun, who was nearing his twenty eighth birthday when he first examined constructive for PEDs, all of them had been of their 30s and within the again halves of their respective careers.

Tatis represents a cross-section of age and stature that’s with out precedent, which makes him a compelling take a look at case for a way a tainted participant could make up floor within the public sphere. The notion of his profession might in the end reveal quite a bit about how trendy baseball followers rationalize PED use within the wake of the steroid period.

Tatis’ teammates, a minimum of, expressed hope.

“America forgives,” Padres third baseman Manny Machado mentioned. “I do not need to give him the excuse of being a 23-year-old, however that is what he’s. He has quite a bit on his plate. He is a 23-year-old child who had the whole lot in his palms, and he is feeling it. He is remorseful. I do know that for a reality. If he can go on the market and proceed doing what he must do, there is no doubt in my thoughts that he can do some nice issues on this world. It is only a matter of going on the market and doing it and placing that step ahead.”

Step one in Tatis’ reclamation tour was confronting the group that rewarded him with a 14-year, $340 million extension after he had performed in lower than 150 main league video games. Over a five-day stretch that started final Thursday, Tatis met in particular person with Padres proprietor Peter Seidler, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller, supervisor Bob Melvin and, most notably, his teammates, internet hosting a 15- to 20-minute players-only assembly contained in the Petco Park clubhouse that many, together with Tatis, characterised as “robust love.”

Gamers, a few of whom had been overtly essential of Tatis within the wake of his 80-game suspension on Aug. 12, appeared to return away with the assumption that it was useful and maybe even crucial. They appreciated his candor and his contrition, and so they struck a tone of help whereas addressing the media shortly thereafter.

“He desires some assist,” Musgrove mentioned, “and we instructed him that is what we’re right here for.”

Tatis has immediately gone from one of many sport’s most likable personas to a villain, a person who will likely be booed in highway stadiums all through the nation for the foreseeable future. It is a acquainted place for gamers who’ve been related to PEDs, and the trail again — if one even existed — has various.

Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa made their tenth and last look on the Corridor of Fame poll earlier this 12 months and had been denied entry by the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation of America, however David Ortiz, whose PED ties are considerably extra murky, was voted in on his first 12 months of eligibility. Palmeiro, Ramirez, Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Mark McGwire and Gary Sheffield may by no means get in. However Pettitte appears to have restored his public picture much better than most, and Rodriguez has loved a post-career renaissance, touchdown front-facing baseball-media jobs with ESPN and FOX.

The widespread theme there, maybe, is sincerity — the notion of it, a minimum of. Pettitte acknowledged that he used human-growth hormone to heal from an elbow damage extra shortly in 2002; Rodriguez has been constantly candid about his PED use in retirement, in stark distinction with how he dealt with the difficulty throughout his enjoying profession.

Tatis by no means denied his transgression, however his model of occasions — that he examined constructive for an anabolic steroid due to a pores and skin remedy used to deal with ringworm — appears to have left one thing to be desired for the general public. It was overtly mocked on social media on the onset and continues to set off widespread cynicism all through the business.

True or not, it seems to have produced an added impediment in his uphill climb.

“He has a great distance in entrance of him,” Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar mentioned when requested in regards to the problem of restoring Tatis’ public picture. “For him, it is gonna take ceaselessly.”

Profar has been one in every of Tatis’ most ardent supporters within the clubhouse. The 2 spoke over the cellphone constantly courting again to when Tatis first examined constructive in late July, Profar mentioned, when Tatis was contemplating an attraction course of that he in the end didn’t pursue. After Tatis accepted his suspension, Profar implored him to deal with the staff. When he noticed Tatis on Sunday evening, Tatis was nonetheless figuring out, operating sprints up a hill in an effort to spice up his explosiveness. Profar described him as “devastated,” but additionally motivated.

“I do not understand how persons are going to react,” Profar mentioned, “however I do know he is gonna work arduous.”

He’ll should. His suspension is the most recent in a rising checklist of lapses which have triggered belief points from key members of the Padres. There was his resolution to not bear shoulder surgical procedure after the 2021 season, which the staff had beforehand suggested (Tatis revealed Tuesday that he’ll now have the surgical procedure, along with his left shoulder not too long ago giving him issues once more). The December motorbike accident about which he was noticeably coy, which probably led to the wrist damage that had been conserving him out all season. The Padres did not even know Tatis booked a flight out of San Antonio, the place he was navigating the ultimate levels of his rehab project, to return to San Diego hours earlier than his suspension was introduced, Preller instructed beat reporters later that evening.

4 days later, Tatis’ bobblehead evening, initially scheduled for Sept. 7 at Petco Park, was changed by a Juan Soto promotion. The Padres scrubbed Tatis’ picture from the Metropolis Join video that performs earlier than Friday house video games, although a staff spokesperson attributed that to him merely being a non-active participant. An enormous mural that featured Tatis has been taken off the wall exterior of Petco Park, however that was a minimum of partly as a result of Eric Hosmer, now a member of the Boston Pink Sox, was additionally on it. Tatis’ picture stays distinguished all through the stadium and the encircling downtown space. With 12 years and $334 million left on his deal, it appears as if the Padres have little alternative however to maneuver ahead with him as a central determine — and hope he lives as much as their religion in him.

“He understands that from a maturity normal he has some steps to take,” Preller mentioned Tuesday. “He is received to go and rebuild that belief, rebuild these relationships he has with some folks within the group. However actually that is about shifting ahead from today for the group. And it is each phrases and actions that we’re gonna go down that highway with. However I really feel assured that he’ll be taught from this example and exit and do the issues on the sector that Padre followers have realized to count on from him.”

When the Padres introduced Tatis’ large deal, they known as it a “statue contract” — and that is likely to be the barometer for a way this all unfolds. The checklist of these honored with statues celebrating their enjoying careers all through the 30 main league ballparks is fewer than 100. They’re reserved for the icons of their respective franchises, stars on the sector and, typically, unvarnished personalities off it. Solely 10 received them with out being voted into the Corridor of Fame, and solely a kind of gamers — Pete Rose, banned from baseball for playing — was tied to controversy.

Tatis was on an early path towards sometime securing his personal, alongside Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman at Petco Park. Now doing so would require a comeback of epic proportions. Of residing as much as celebrity expectations, but additionally of performing as an exemplary determine in each regard. Of being as near excellent as a baseball participant will be. Tatis believes it is “nonetheless sooner or later.”

“I nonetheless suppose that I can regain all people’s belief down the highway,” he mentioned. “It isn’t gonna take a pair days. It is gonna be a really very long time. I am wanting ahead to that problem. On the finish of the day I am nonetheless 23. That is no excuse; I am saying I’ve a very long time in entrance of me.”