SAN DIEGO — Bob Melvin managed Ichiro Suzuki in 2003, the year the metric known as Defensive Runs Saved was introduced, and in 2004, the year Suzuki tallied 30 DRS to establish a right-field record. That standard would not be matched until Mookie Betts did it in 2016, then again in 2017. It has yet to be surpassed. No coincidence: Suzuki and Betts are widely considered the finest defensive right fielders of this century.
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Now, Melvin is managing an upstart contender for the title of best active right fielder in baseball. Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. spent this past spring training preparing, for the first time, as a full-time outfielder. The former shortstop returned April 20 from an 80-game steroid suspension. His performance in all areas has since propelled him down the long road toward redemption. And just 50 games in, he has demonstrated rare aptitude in the newest facet.
With 12 DRS accrued entering Saturday, Tatis led all major leaguers except teammate and second baseman Ha-Seong Kim (16 DRS). The sample may be limited, but it also illustrates how quickly Tatis has adapted and advanced.
“Mookie’s moved around a little bit, but that’s probably the guy that is kind of the gold standard in right field,” Melvin said. “But he’s doing things that Mookie does.”
“It’s really, really unbelievable what he’s doing out there on a nightly basis,” said Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts, Betts’ former Red Sox teammate.
“He is just different,” said Marlins manager and former Padres bench coach Skip Schumaker. “He is a unicorn.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. has made 64 career starts in right field. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)The Padres have been one of the league’s biggest disappointments as their season nears the halfway mark. Their hopes of a turnaround are buoyed, in part, by their defense. Third baseman Manny Machado and center fielder Trent Grisham remain top fielders at their respective positions. Kim, Tatis and Bogaerts are among the early candidates for a Gold Glove. For all three players, such an award would be a first. For many who know Tatis, it would be validation of a long-held belief.
Schumaker, who played both outfield and infield in the majors, coached for the Padres from 2018 through 2021. Over the final three seasons, he witnessed the ascent of one of baseball’s superlative talents. Early on, Schumaker and others in the Padres organization became convinced of a certain theory: Tatis, a dazzling but sometimes-erratic shortstop, could be great virtually anywhere on the field.
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“I thought he could win a Gold Glove at any position, honestly,” Schumaker said.
In the final several weeks of the 2021 season, Schumaker watched as the Padres experimented with Tatis in the outfield after he returned from a series of shoulder dislocations. Tatis, who had never played any outfield professionally, struggled at times to adjust. Still, he showed regular flashes.
Two weeks ago, Schumaker witnessed recent proof of progress. Tatis, in a three-game series against Miami, did not get a chance to make a true highlight play in LoanDepot Park’s spacious right field. But he caught every ball he should have caught. And, unlike two summers ago, he looked quite comfortable.
“What I saw in right field was him relaxed,” Schumaker said. “I think he probably was able to get a full spring training in, which he wasn’t able to do when we threw him out there in the middle of the (2021) season, and got real work in. He looks so comfortable out there, arm is ridiculous, ran down everything. There wasn’t a flaw when I advanced him before the series.”
Schumaker’s hunch was correct. Tatis had spent a full spring working exclusively in the outfield and almost entirely in right field. Instead of taking ground balls each morning, he shagged hundreds of fly balls shot out of a machine by first-base coach David Macias. It was not always pretty, including in Cactus League play and early in his regular-season return. In time, though, Tatis’ athleticism and dedication to learning a relatively new craft began to take over.
“My first line drive, like, I messed up,” Tatis said. “But you just keep learning from that and more reps, more reps, and now look where I’m at.”
Tatis has recorded three more DRS than the second right fielder on the list, Boston’s Alex Verdugo. According to Statcast, he leads all right fielders with six Outs Above Average (tied for second among all outfielders). At 95 mph, the average arm strength on the top 10 percent of his throws ranks fourth among outfielders. All public metrics indicate no obvious weakness in terms of his jumps, routes and reads, the area Tatis said he has come the furthest in. The Padres’ internal numbers for Tatis’ defense, Melvin said, are “off the charts.”
“Just because you’re an athlete doesn’t mean it just works,” said Schumaker, who has overseen Marlins star Jazz Chisholm’s own transition from the infield to the outfield. (Before Chisholm went on the injured list in May, he had overcome an uneven start to rank among the league leaders in OAA.) “It takes work and commitment. So credit to him.”
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“It’s happened so quickly,” Melvin said. “Only people as talented as him could probably do it at this pace. But there’s a lot of hard work involved, too.”
Two decades ago, Melvin saw similar qualities in a Mariners icon. Suzuki, starting with his stateside debut in 2001, would win 10 consecutive Gold Gloves. Like Tatis, he possessed speed, instincts and an uncommon arm. The two, according to Melvin, also share a certain sense of responsibility.
“It’s who they are,” said Melvin, who, like many in the sport, calls Suzuki the best right fielder he has ever seen. “They’re baseball players. They understand the entertainment value that they bring. They feel accountable not only to the team but the fan base.”
Tatis’ position change, coming during his return from suspension, has thrust him into close proximity with fans. He has been showered with adulation at Petco Park, where the Padres drew a record-setting 27th sellout crowd in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Tampa Bay. He has been roundly booed on the road, where Tatis has often responded with playful gestures. The heckling, he says, has fueled his work in the outfield. After all, there are few better answers than sound, sometimes spectacular defense.
“It just feeds me,” he said. “It gives me more gas, however you want to put it, and I feel like it just makes me better.”
Meanwhile, people around the Padres say his approach to a new challenge is evidence of maturation. Tatis has credited the likes of Macias and Grisham with helping him learn the intricacies of outfield play. Unlike in 2021, when his focus seemed to drift when he wasn’t playing shortstop, he has made a consistent effort to maintain it.
Bogaerts, whose arrival pushed Tatis off his preferred spot, said in February he might address the potential awkwardness with his new teammate. So far, the veteran shortstop has not seen the need. In Bogaerts’ view, the budding outfielder he saw in spring training is almost nothing like the current version.
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“I don’t even know where it is in his heart, if he wants to come back after seeing how (Tatis has succeeded),” Bogaerts said. “And obviously, he knows. He knows he can play short. He knows he can play it. But shortstop, sometimes it’s a position (where) you got to take care of the ball. I was a guy that sometimes I didn’t make the flashy plays, but the plays that are right at me, I’ll make them. And obviously, he has more athletic ability than me, and that’s props to him. But the way he’s playing out there, man, I can’t believe it, like it happened this quick.
“Just moving out there in right field, who knows what would happen. And he’s just answered so many questions and has done so many unbelievable things out there so far.”
The most unbelievable may have arrived Wednesday night at Petco Park. In the ninth inning of a game in which Tatis made offensive history, Cleveland’s Amed Rosario aggressively rounded first base on a single. Tatis responded by deking Rosario on a throw behind him to first baseman Jake Cronenworth. Rosario was ruled out, and although he might have been safe, the call stood upon review as Tatis bowed to an awed crowd.
Heads-up play to deke the runner by Fernando Tatis Jr. pic.twitter.com/rgiC4sFEXd
— MLB (@MLB) June 15, 2023
Two days later, Tatis confirmed he had never practiced such a play. He praised Cronenworth’s instincts and mentioned he was still learning to tame his occasional tendency to overthrow. (Thursday night, the 24-year-old had ambitiously thrown home after fielding an RBI single, allowing Cleveland’s Andrés Giménez to advance to second.) He demurred when asked if his recent success had changed his outlook on his defensive future, although he pointed out how much he enjoyed patrolling Petco Park’s especially spacious right field. (Tatis has expressed interest in playing more center field while not shutting the door on an eventual return to shortstop.)
“I don’t know, man,” Tatis said with a laugh. “A year ago, I was a shortstop. This year, I’m in right field. I don’t know what the future holds. But it’s like what I said in spring training: I’m one of the best athletes of this game, and I feel like I can add (center field) too to my game.”
It might be a cocky statement if it weren’t undeniably true. Tatis is arguably the most athletic right fielder in baseball — and a rapidly improving one at that. Another truth: He has a ways to go before he can be deemed as reliable as Betts, a disciplined, accurate thrower and the first outfielder to win five consecutive Gold Gloves since Suzuki won 10 in a row.
“Obviously, Mookie is top of the chart,” Tatis said. “I mean, the guy has been playing elite defense since he got to the big leagues.”
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For now, the first 50 games of his comeback have sent Tatis soaring up the ranks. What is his outfield ceiling? His manager and a former Red Sox star seem equipped to answer that. Both men spent years in proximity with generational greatness.
“Gold Glove. Multiple,” Melvin said. “I mean, he’s probably on pace this year. I haven’t looked at a lot of the right-field numbers. I haven’t seen a better one.”
“Is he in the same group with Mookie? You can say that, but Mookie’s done it for a long, long time already,” Bogaerts said. “But I would say this kid is heading in a very special direction himself.”
(Top photo of Fernando Tatis Jr.: Orlando Ramirez / USA Today)
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