Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. is biggest disappointment in RF with one clear fix originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The San Diego Padres are off to a great start this season, and there have been plenty of players leading the charge. Mason Miller is one of them, but Fernando Tatis Jr., another superstar on the roster, has struggled.
While the Padres own a good 19-10 record and have gotten some decent production from multiple players on the roster, Tatis hasn’t been nearly good enough.
As ESPN’s David Schoenfield highlighted, there is one clear reason why Tatis has been the biggest disappointment out of any right fielder this season: he cannot hit a home run with his bad launch angle.
Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. is biggest RF disappointment for HR reasons
“No home runs? At least this one is easy to explain,” Schoenfield writes. “Tatis is hitting everything on the ground. He has the best hard-hit rate in the Majors at 66.7%, just ahead of Rice and Wood, but his average launch angle ranks 176th out of 180 qualified players.”
Tatis is hitting the ball harder than anyone in the Major Leagues, but he has yet to hit a single home run all season long.
Petco Park isn’t a hitter-friendly park, but it’s still a surprise to see Tatis 109 at-bats into the season without a home run.
Back in 2021, he hit 42 homers. And each of the last three seasons, he’s hit at least 21 homers, with 25 this past season.
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But he has yet to hit a single homer this season, and it’s not to do with his lack of power. His hard-hit rate being as good as any hitter in baseball shows he’s making good contact. The issue is he’s hitting everything into the ground.
Tatis has a .610 OPS this season, thanks in large part to a putrid .284 slugging percentage. His average slugging percentage for his career is .504. Compared to his figure this season, that’s a brutal comparison.
Schoenfield named Tatis the most disappointing right fielder in baseball this season, and for good reason. He hasn’t hit a homer this season, and overall is a severe disappointment compared to the expectations for him this season.
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