The Padres Young Superstar is Done Playing by the Rules
Written by Andrew Goldberg
No matter who you talk to around the game of baseball, one name seems to keep popping up. Fernando Tatis Jr, the San Diego Padres 21-year-old shortstop, is having a historic season in just his second year of play. As of Thursday he is leading the entire league in home runs, runs batted in, runs scored and stolen bases, all while reinvigorating a Padres team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2006. So why are so many people mad at him?
The answer stems from Tatis’s decision to swing the bat in the eighth inning of the Padres contest against the Texas Rangers. San Diego led 10-3 in the ballgame, with Tatis having hit a three-run homer in his last at-bat just an inning earlier. But the Padres weren’t done scoring. Texas loaded up the bases and delivered Tatis a 3-0 count before pitcher Juan Nicasio was forced to lob one over the plate. Tatis promptly sent it over the right field wall for a grand slam, providing an exclamation point on a dominant victory.
Texas took exception to the gesture, however, and retaliated when pitcher Ian Gibaut threw at the Padres Manny Machado in his next at-bat. That decision would lead to suspensions for both Gibaut and Rangers manager Chris Woodward, who had this to say about Tatis after the ballgame.
“I didn’t like it, personally. You’re up by seven in the eighth inning; it’s typically not a good time to swing 3-0. It’s kind of the way we were all raised in the game.”
Further complicating the situation was commentary from Padres manager Jay Tingler, who also criticized Tatis’s decision to swing. He called the moment “a learning opportunity” and reiterated the importance of players picking up signs.
The incident later sparked a debate on social media, with many players and fans jumping to defend Tatis. Among his supporters were baseball Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Johnny Bench, as well as ESPN’s top baseball reporter Jeff Passan, who tweeted “Unwritten rules are unwritten because when you write them down, it exposes how truly stupid they are.”
Some former players such as the Mets Keith Hernandez would continue to criticize Tatis, but the public focus on baseball’s unwritten rules has continued to shift in a negative direction. As Passan writes in his expose on Tatis, the game grows more exciting when young stars play to their full potential are free to express their personality. The next generation of baseball stars like Tatis, the Nationals Juan Soto and the Braves Ronald Acuna Jr have all embraced that philosophy in recent years, leading to a philosophical difference between the old school fans and the players of today. But if Tatis’s numbers are any indication, the Padres young star won’t be done with the haters for a very long time.
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