Fernando

Tatis Jr.

The long ball was only his second of the year, but his bat has come alive lately. Tatis entered the day having hit .397/.433/.508 over his past 67 plate appearances, though it came with a .453 BABIP. Fantasy managers will still take it. He’s pulling the ball in the air less than ever this season, with a strangely low launch angle. Adding second base eligibility has helped soften the blow, but it’s wasted if he doesn’t begin to hit like he historically has.

Tatis got on four times against the Reds on Tuesday, starting with a base hit and a run scored in the third inning. He added a double in the fifth, then singled and was caught stealing in the seventh before reaching with his fourth hit in the ninth. The 27-year-old outfielder still has just one home run on the season while hitting .279/.348/.336 with 24 runs scored, 19 RBI, and 15 steals across 280 plate appearances.

Two games after finally homering, Tatis had his second best pulled flyball of the year tonight, drilling an Aaron Nola curveball 381-feet off the wall in left. That double left his bat at 113.5 mph, and he also had the second hardest-hit ball of the game with a 110.5-mph groundball single. Things here are starting to look up.

Just a little 451-foot poke to left from the light-hitting Tatis. It went 58 feet farther than any other flyball hit by Tatis this year. His previous farthest-hit pulled flyballs this year were 367 feet and 335 feet. Hopefully, it’ll prove to be the start of something. Tatis is now at .271/.346/.324 in 241 plate appearances on the season.

It’s an undeniable fact that Tatis hasn’t lived up to fantasy managers’ lofty expectations as a borderline first-round pick in most leagues based on his unexpected power outage. However, he’s at least found a way to be productive in other ways recently, hitting .417 (10-for-24) with two steals over his last seven games. He reached base safely in all four of his plate appearances and picked up his 13th steal of the season in this one. It may be impossible to salvage this season overall, but there’s no reason to think Tatis can’t be an impactful fantasy contributor, just not a five-category superstar, for the rest of the year.

Tatis finds himself at second base for the sixth time in the last seven games and will make his 15th appearance of the season at the keystone in this one. He’s trending towards adding second-base eligibility in all conceivable fantasy formats by the end of the month, which is a significant development for his long-term value.

Fernando Tatis Jr. moves from second to first, and Miguel Andujar, who hit sixth last night, is in the second spot. Merrill has gone hitless in four straight games to fall to .205/.275/.325 for the season. He had led off in each of his last 10 starts, and this is the first time all season that he’s hit lower than fourth.

Tatis is 7-for-41 with one extra-base hit in his last 11 games, dropping his OPS from .665 to .606. The bat speed is there and he’s still hitting the ball hard, but until he figures out how to pull the ball in the air on occasion, he’s just not going to be very productive. In 180 plate appearances this season, Tatis has hit 31 balls with over a 20-degree launch angle. Only one of those was pulled.

Tatis remains in search of his first home run of the season heading into his 40th game of the season during Tuesday’s series opener in Milwaukee. However, he’s going to make his 10th appearance at the keystone already this season, which has significant fantasy ramifications moving forward since he’ll gain eligibility in most leagues at one of the scarcest position groups in the game.

He’s batting right in between Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado, as the Padres are again making changes after losing in a one-hit shutout Friday. Tatis, who had hit fifth the last three times the Padres faced righties, is 3-for-23 with no RBI in his last six games. He has one RBI in his last 16 games.