The San Diego Padres, in every season over the past six years, have had grand World Series contending ambitions. General manager AJ Preller has certainly been aggressive in upgrading the squad, and this was the case earlier this year as well when he traded one of the consensus best prospects in MLB, Leo de Vries, to bring Mason Miller in, the hard-throwing shutdown reliever, to prepare for a postseason push come October.
Alas, the Padres will now have to watch the rest of the playoffs from the couch after they were bounced from postseason contention on Thursday night following a 3-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game 3 of their NL Wild Card series matchup. It was a struggle for the Padres to score all series long, and it did not help that one of the players they expected to produce, Fernando Tatis Jr., was invisible for most of the series.
Following last year's playoff run wherein Tatis was at the top of his game and was actually on the cusp of leading the Padres past their division rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, him going 1-12 with one walk (.237 OPS) against the Cubs is nothing short of a disaster. This has caused unceasing frustration for the 26-year-old slugger, who couldn't hide his disappointment with himself and his team following another early playoff exit.
“Just the wrong approach. Wrong approach from the plate. Definitely bad timing for it,” Tatis said in a locker room interview following the Padres' loss, via Marty Caswell of The Sporting Tribune. “[We need to] hit. Just f**king hit. … Just pick it up and everything.”
There's no point in crying over spilled milk now for the Padres, and all they could do is process this heartbreaking playoff exit and use it as fuel to perhaps get them over the hump for next season.
Fans question Fernando Tatis Jr. and Padres' heart
Fans are reading so much into Tatis' body language after he put up a woeful performance in the Padres' series loss against the Cubs. They are questioning whether he still has it in him to lead the Padres to the promised land.
“There is no heart in Tatis, trade him!!” X user @ChrisReyes8 wrote.
“Biggest move to make is the same one that’s been needed since 2022: Trade Tatis. Not a team player and not nearly the player he was pre steroid bust. Can probably get a nice return,” @briankiesling5 added.
“Tatis is pathetic! Get off our team now! No heart! He obviously wants to go home! Shut out two years in a row in an elimination game! Just unreal!” @danny_vollmer furthered.
