When Manny Machado finally showed signs of emerging from the offensive funk that defined the first half of his season, San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen basically said the team goes as Manny goes.
Well, the calendar has flipped to late August and even though Machado might still finish with his customary 30 homers and 90-100 RBI, he’s just about a cinch to finish with the lowest average of his major league career by far.
Good thing that Fernando Tatis Jr. is taking a turn as baseball’s best player.
Disclaimer: Shohei Ohtani or Pete Crow-Armstrong will be the National League Most Valuable Player. If I had a say, it would be Crow-Armstrong. Annoying antics aside, he’s starred on offense and defense.
Sure, Ohtani puts fear into a pitcher like few other hitters. But he’s essentially been a designated hitter this year except for 14 games on the mound, where he’s pitched to a 1.79 earned run average. That shouldn’t take precedence over PCA posting up every day and carrying the Chicago Cubs into contention.
But right now, PCA nor anyone else is doing what Tatis has been doing. The guy who didn’t jack a homer until May 30 has matched PCA’s 12 bombs since the All-Star break. Tatis has turned a lost season into maybe one to remember while helping San Diego go on a 21-7 run since a July 23 loss in Atlanta.
Inside Tatis’ breakout
It’s not just that Tatis went 12-for-25 last week with four homers and 11 RBI. It’s not just that he’s a Platinum Glove award winner in right field who made two of the best plays last week or this or any other season, robbing Francisco Lindor of a grand slam on August 18 and then sprinting like a gazelle Saturday night to deny Minnesota’s Josh Bell a 9th-inning double or triple with a running catch that almost looked routine.
It’s that he does this with a breathtaking combination of showmanship and athleticism. The guy who drew an 80-game PED ban four years ago that sullied his reputation appears to figured things out.
And with help from teammates that have simultaneously emerged from a team-wide slump that lasted the season’s first half – talking about you, Jackson Merrill – Tatis has dragged San Diego into the NL’s last wild-card spot.
Team Tatis with suddenly good starting pitching and a lockdown back end of the bullpen, and the Gaslamp gang can dream of throwing a November parade. Sure, the Dodgers have owned them the last two years. But it’s not hard to remember that in October 2022, LA won 10 of 13 from San Diego in the regular season and then gobbled postseason failcake when the Padres upset it in the NLDS.
This San Diego team is better than that one. And Tatis is playing like the best player in the world. Don’t discount him or his team this October.
