{"id":27059,"date":"2026-04-12T03:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=27059"},"modified":"2026-04-12T03:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:29:28","slug":"fernando-tatis-jr-to-start-at-second-base-against-rockies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=27059","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Tatis Jr. to start at second base against Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
No, it\u2019s not a typo. Fernando Tatis Jr.<\/a> was the Padres\u2019 starting second baseman Saturday night in San Diego.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Seemingly out of nowhere, Tatis — the two-time Platinum Glove Award-winning right fielder — made his first career start at second base in the Padres\u2019 game against the Rockies at Petco Park.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Tatis broke through in the big leagues as a shortstop before making the full-time move to the outfield in 2023. He\u2019s only made one career appearance at second base — late in a game on Sept. 6, 2023 — though he started 10 games there in the Minor Leagues.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
It\u2019s not entirely out of left field. (Or, well, right field for Tatis.)\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been planning this for a little while,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Since his move to the outfield, Tatis has regularly taken ground balls in the infield, and the majority of those grounders have come at second base. He likes getting work at the position — where he stays on the right side of the field, so the angles off the bat are largely the same as they are in right.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
In recent weeks, Tatis\u2019 reps at second base have increased. But there was almost no indication that he\u2019d get to play the position in a game — until Saturday\u2019s lineup was announced.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The Padres don\u2019t have an obvious backup at second base right now with Sung-Mun Song on the injured list<\/a> with a left oblique strain. Ty France is capable of handling second, but not all that well.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
So on Saturday, when San Diego wanted to give Xander Bogaerts a day off — meaning starting second baseman Jake Cronenworth would be sliding to short for the day — we learned who the preferred backup second baseman is. And nobody saw it coming.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cTrying to figure out a way to get Jake and Xander some days off coming up,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cFelt like Tatis was the best option at second base. And the most fun and exciting option at second base.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Can\u2019t argue with that last part.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Will this last?<\/strong>
Almost certainly not with any regularity. Tatis is a right fielder — perhaps the best right fielder in baseball. The Padres still view him that way.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
But clearly Stammen doesn\u2019t see any harm in moving Tatis around every once in a while.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an amazing athlete, can do about anything,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cThat\u2019s really all it is. We\u2019re just really confident in who he is as a person, who he is as an athlete. You put something in front of him, he\u2019ll be able to do anything.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
When Song returns — and, in the midst of a rehab assignment with Triple-A El Paso, he\u2019s probably not too far off — he\u2019ll become the primary backup at basically every spot in the infield except first base. For now, however, the Padres can use Nick Castellanos in right field — where he spent nearly all of his time in Philadelphia — with Tatis at second.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
What to expect<\/strong>
Who knows?! We have almost no data on Tatis at second base. He didn\u2019t play there in Spring Training. In the only inning he played there in 2023, he made a couple plays. But that was three years ago.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The impetus behind Tatis\u2019 move to the outfield was that his athleticism and arm strength would play well in right field. He\u2019d dealt with injury concerns as an infielder, and he\u2019d struggled a bit at shortstop, particularly making throwing errors. Obviously, the throw from second base is a bit easier.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
At the very least, Tatis shouldn\u2019t have any issue with the angles off the bat, having starred in right field for the past three seasons. It\u2019s almost certainly part of the reason that his grand return to the infield came at second base rather than short.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
What about Tatis\u2019 offense?<\/strong>
He\u2019s off to a dreadful start, entering Saturday hitting just .189 with a .519 OPS through 14 games. He\u2019s also been supremely unlucky, at least according to the batted-ball data that tracks expected outcomes, given quality of contact. (Tatis has been hitting the ball hard, with little to show for it.)\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
On Friday he noted that \u201cthe baseball gods are mad at me right now.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cMaybe him concentrating on playing second base unlocks him at the plate,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cHe stops thinking so much about it and just uses his natural talent.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
In the context of all that, there are two ways to view Tatis\u2019 move to second base:\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
1. It\u2019s an unnecessary challenge heaped on the shoulders of a struggling superstar.
2. It\u2019s the type of challenge Tatis might have fun with, perhaps lightening the burden he feels in relation to his struggles.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Clearly, the Padres feel strongly it\u2019ll be the latter.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, it\u2019s not a typo. Fernando Tatis Jr. was the Padres\u2019 starting second baseman Saturday night in San Diego. Seemingly out of nowhere, Tatis — the two-time Platinum Glove Award-winning right fielder — made his first career start at second base in the Padres\u2019 game against the Rockies at Petco Park. Tatis broke through in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Fernando-Tatis-Jr-to-start-at-second-base-against-Rockies.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27061,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27059\/revisions\/27061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}