The baseball world has been dealt a shocking bombshell tonight after it was reported that San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. has been suspended 80 games for violating Major League Baseball’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
First reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN, Tatis Jr. has been suspended without pay for testing positive for Clostebol, a PED substance that is in violation of MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
Tatis Jr. will miss the rest of the 2022 regular season and the entire postseason, while he will also miss 32 games of the 2023 season. The earliest he could return will be May 2023.
The Padres released the following statement:
“We were surprised and extremely disappointed today to learn that Fernando Tatis Jr. tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Prevention and Treatment Program and subsequently received an 80-game suspension without pay. We fully support the Program and are hopeful that Fernando will learn from this experience.”
This is, of course, shocking news, and there will almost certainly be more information that will come to light over the coming days and weeks. Tatis Jr. has yet to play this year, having fractured his wrist in a bike accident during the offseason. The uber-talented shortstop was nearing a return, having been sent to Triple-A on a rehab assignment last week.
This is a crushing blow to the Padres’ World Series hopes. Tatis Jr. is one of the most naturally gifted players in the game right now, and he owns a .292/.369/.596 slash line with a .965 OPS, 81 home runs, 195 RBI and a 13.6 WAR over his first three seasons in the majors. He is a two-time Silver Slugger award winner, and he’s also improved his glove work in the field considerably.
The Padres loaded up at the trade deadline by pulling the trigger on a blockbuster trade for superstar outfielder Juan Soto from the Nationals while also acquiring Josh Bell, Brandon Drury, and Josh Hader in a clear bid to go all out to win now and also to extend their World Series winner. The hope was to create a lethal three-headed monster with Soto, Tatis Jr., and Manny Machado, but Tatis Jr. is now out of the picture for the foreseeable, and San Diego’s hopes of a deep postseason run have now been substantially dented.
There will be more fallout to come in all likelihood over the coming weeks, and the burning question will no doubt be why one of the most talented players in the game continues to make high-profile and questionable mistakes. Tatis Jr.’s loss is certainly a huge one for the Padres, but it is also a substantial loss for the game of baseball, given how much fun the 23-year-old has injected into MLB since making his big league debut in 2019.
