Fernando Tatís Jr. drawing El Mago comparisons

CHICAGO – As they hustled to a meeting a few hours before the first pitch, Fernando Tatís Jr. and Franmil Reyes tried to slow each other down. The Padres’ two rookies joked and pulled on each other’s shirts as they bounced past superstar Manny Machado down the tunnel toward the batting cages under the stands at Wrigley Field.

Tatís is having a lot of fun in his first season in the majors. He’s rewriting the Padres’ history book. His approach to the game draws the attention of fans almost as much as his blonde dreadlocks and enormous smile.

El Mago Comparisons

As the Padres prepared to face the Cubs last week the comparisons to Javier Báez were frequent. Highlight shows have been filled by one of the two often this season. Báez and Tatís are among the more athletic players in the game.

Each was named their respective team’s winner of the Heart and Hustle Awards on July 16. Tatís was the only rookie to win the award.

“They’re two of the more fun guys in the game to watch play baseball,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “They both tag guys in a way that nobody else really does. They can contort their bodies in ways to avoid tags that very few other people in the game can do. …

“Fernando and Báez play with literally no fear of making a mistake on the baseball field. They’re both so much fun to watch.”

Making an impact

San Diego kept Tatís on the major league roster for Opening Day, a move that some questioned because of the impact starting his service time would have on the financial future of the franchise. What he has done on the field since has erased any doubt that he’s ready for prime time.

“We know he’s got the type of ability to do just about anything on the field,” Green said. “The way he runs the bases, the defensive plays he’s capable of making … the power is top of the scale. He can shoot a ball through the right side for a single or hit a ball out to dead center. I don’t think anything he does surprises us at this point, but it’s fun to watch him play baseball.”

On July 16, Tatís became the youngest player in Padres history to collect four hits in one game. Two days later in Florida he became only the third player in big league history to play the majority of his age-20 season at shortstop and hit 15 home runs, joining Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Correa.

Washington’s Juan Soto is the only Dominican player to hit more than 15 home runs in a season before turning 21, hitting 20 last year.

When Machado was a 20-year-old rookie in Baltimore he hit 14 home runs in 667 plate appearances. It took Tatís 263 trips to the plate to collect his 15th long ball.

Playing next to Machado has helped Tatís through the daily grind of his rookie campaign.

“It’s awesome playing next to [Machado] every day,” Tatís said. “I learn from him every day we’re out there together.”

Family Time

Playing next to Machado has helped Tatís on the field, but daily conversations with his father have made a huge impact on the rookie.

Fernando Tatís Sr. had a solid career, appearing in 949 games over 11 big league seasons. His career year came in 1999 when he hit 34 home runs drove in 107 runs for the Cardinals. He famously hit two grand slams in one inning off the Dodgers’ Chan Ho Park that year.

Fernando Tatís Jr. was born three months later.

The two are different players on the field. Junior, who is almost five inches taller than his father, missed more than four weeks because of an injury, but he already eclipsed his father’s career-best 3.0 WAR season before the end of July. He has emerged as one of the better base runners in baseball and has shown his father’s ability to hit the long ball as well.

The two remain close off the field, talking on the phone daily.

“I talk to him every day,” Junior said of his father. “We talk about what’s going on in life, who’s pitching that day, running the bases, everything baseball.”

The counsel of his father and Machado – a veteran teammate who was also an elite prospect breaking into the majors at a young age – have helped Tatís succeed.

“He’s got a crazy amount of talent,” veteran infielder Ian Kinsler said of Tatís. “He’s the spark plug. He’s the energy guy. He provides a lot of problems for the other team and plays a demanding position. … How good he gets is really up to him.”

Featured Image: David Banks / Getty Images Sport