SAN FRANCISCO — Fernando Tatis Jr. is hitting the ball hard just as often as he was the first month of the season.
He is chasing pitches outside the zone less than he was in that time, when his OPS and his batting average were among the highest in the major leagues.
He just can’t get his timing right. He is changing his batting stance, sometimes from one at-bat to another. He is not connecting with fastballs as he should and as he was. He is grounding out and striking out.
And he is pretty ticked off.
He knows his dejection shows in almost everything he does on the field.
“When I’m not doing good, I’m definitely not happy,” he said recently. “And I won’t be happy when I’m doing bad, because then I’m being a hypocrite to myself. And it won’t happen.”
Tatis entered Wednesday’s game in one of the worst offensive funks of his career, and he wears it as plainly as his uniform.
“It’s just tough, because I hold myself even higher and expect way more than what people are even thinking,” he said. “And I want to give them what they want. But it’s just not that easy.”
As electric and charismatic as Tatis is when things are going right, he is generally severely sullen when the 0-fers pile up.
His May was a pile.
And June — historically his hottest month — has not started much better.
From the Padres’ second game in May through their second game in June — from May 3 to June 3 — Tatis hit .186 with a .612 OPS. That was 28 games.
The only stretch that can compare was a 28-game run in the summer of 2023 when he hit .182 with a .562 OPS.
Some reasons for hope: Tatis had three hits and scored two runs in Wednesday’s 6-5 loss to the Giants, one day after reaching on an infield single and walking twice in five plate appearances. He has a .334 batting average and a 1.055 OPS in June over the course of his career; and he has homered at least once in seven of the 10 previous series he has played at Oracle Park.
Tatis’ five home runs from May 3 through Tuesday were third most on the team, and his 39.5% hard-hit rate was the highest on the team in that span.
But he grounded out in 26% of his at-bats and struck out in another 24%. His “sweet spot percentage” — how often he is putting balls in play with a launch angle between eight and 32 degrees — is 24.3%. That is more than seven percentage points lower than his previous career low. His batting average on fastballs, which was .426 through his first 29 games, has been .214 the past 27 games.
Tatis has talked about not being able to get his timing right for weeks. It is clear in watching him that he is uncomfortable.
Where he began the season essentially keeping his foot on the ground while loading for a swing, he has cycled through doing that and varying degrees of lifting his leg. Sometimes, he has had what could be considered three different stances in a game.
But it isn’t so much about the leg kick; it’s about balance and moving forward so he isn’t “rolling over” and grounding out to the left side. That is what he is working on.
There is a clear line of demarcation besides the calendar. Tatis was hit in the left forearm in his second plate appearance in May. He left that May 2 game but came back the next night, doubled and scored the winning run in the ninth inning and has started every game since. He wore a padded compression sleeve on the arm for the next two games but not since.
Tatis pondered the question of whether being hit has affected his hitting in any way.
“Not really,” he said. “I’m just not hitting good.”
It is rare that such skids occur. But when they do, his head hangs, and his shoulders sag.
And it is not just fans who notice.
Teammates. Coaches. of the front office. Everyone knows (and feels) when Tatis is not doing well.
From time to time, when it reaches a certain point, like recently, those around him will take turns encouraging him. They will also remind him how important he is to the team — not just what he does in the batter’s box or right field, but the energy he brings.
To that end, Tatis works to pull himself from his misery to celebrate big moments in games. He has, for instance, emerged from the dugout to participate in his traditional celebration with Manny Machado after every one of Machado’s home runs the past month.
“You can’t be happy every single day,” Tatis said. “You can’t be happy when you’re not doing good. Obviously, you’re happy for your teammates when we win a game and when they’re doing good. And you celebrate their homers as if it was your own. But when it’s time to focus, it’s time to focus. … It’s a balance of being a good teammate and also knowing the situation. I want to celebrate with Manny, and I’m really happy for him. But, you know, at the same time, my at-bats are not going (well), and during the game, I’m thinking of how I can do better, and I want to do better every single time.
“But for my teammates, I’m definitely happy for them, and I’m gonna celebrate them every single time I can. I expect myself to be there for them every single time. But I’m not happy when I’m not doing good.”
