The San Diego Padres are off to a bit of a shaky start this season as they are 17-18 through 35 games. Luckily for the Padres, the rest of their division has gotten off to a shaky start as well. The Los Angeles Dodgers have been playing well as of late and they are in first place with a 21-13 record, but the Padres are in second place as everyone else in the division has a losing record. One player that will be huge for the success of this San Diego team is Fernando Tatis Jr.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is currently leading the Padres in home runs as he has seven on the year. He has also knocked in 20 runs so far this season and he is batting .246. One issue that Tatis Jr. has had at plate, however, is pitchers throwing him up and in. There have been a lot of close calls lately, and Padres manager Mike Shildt is fed up with it.

“We're seeing way too many pitches up and in on Tati,” Mike Shildt said, according to a tweet from Bob Nightengale. “It's enough. It really is enough. If you want to throw in, that's fine. But I don't know what people are trying to accompish by throwing up and in. All you're doing is pissing the guy off, and it's uncalled for. …It's happening way too frequently, and it's not something that we're going to tolerate much longer.”

It will be interesting to see if this starts to decrease and how the umpires will begin to handle it now that Shildt is clearly upset about it. MLB pitchers are professionals for a reason, they can control their pitches better than anyone in the world. Because there have so many of these instances, it's pretty clear that pitchers are purposefully giving Fernando Tatis Jr. a scare.

Will umpires start to eject pitchers for this?

San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) dodges a pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the ninth inning at Chase Field.
© Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Now that Mike Shildt is clearly very aware of what is going on, he will likely be having more conversations with umpires before games to discuss what will happen if pitchers are purposefully going up and in. Shildt noted that he doesn't care if pitchers want to throw inside to Tatis Jr., but when they are getting close to his head, that is when it becomes a problem.

Don't be surprised if we start to see some immediate ejections occur if this trend keeps up. If an umpire believes that a pitcher is purposefully throwing at someone's head, it doesn't matter if they don't hit them, the ump will still toss them from the game. The only way that this trend is going to stop is if that starts to be the punishment.