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FERNANDO TATIS JR.‘S highly anticipated return to baseball will begin when he leads off Thursday night’s game from Chase Field in Phoenix. Boos will inevitably reign down, the hostility that promised to surround him will instantly be felt. But the greatest challenge of his most important season might begin shortly thereafter, in the bottom half of the first inning, when he bypasses his original position of shortstop and ventures out to his new spot in right field. Confronting the backlash of a steroid-related scandal can be exceedingly difficult for any player. Nelson Cruz thinks it’s toughest on the outfielders.

“You’re out there alone,” he said. “You hear everything.”

In January 2013, a decade before he would join Tatis on this year’s San Diego Padres, Cruz was among those linked to Biogenesis, the Florida-based anti-aging clinic that became notorious for distributing performance-enhancing drugs. A 50-game suspension followed in August. And the time between was spent occupying right field for the Texas Rangers. Every road game offered its own unique blend of boos and jeers, the most prominent of which were heard during the quiet moments between balls in play. Now Tatis will confront the same obstacle.

His only path, Cruz believes, is forward.

“He’s gotta go out there and do his job,” Cruz said. “That’s the only way he can shut up the noise.”

It has been more than 18 months since Tatis played in a real game with real stakes. The 2022 season began with an injury to his wrist and ended with a positive test for an anabolic steroid. His return, therefore, is clouded with uncertainty. There are questions surrounding how his body will respond to two surgeries, how his offense will be impacted by the down time, how his skills will translate to a new position, how his mind will process the negative energy that follows him. One aspect that shouldn’t be doubted, Padres manager Bob Melvin believes, is whether his teammates will accept him.

The news of Tatis’ 80-game, PED-related suspension on Aug. 12 came less than five months after it was learned he had fractured his left wrist during an offseason motorcycle accident, drawing pointed criticism from within his clubhouse. Key members of the Padres were publicly and privately irked at what they believed was a lack of accountability and maturity from Tatis, a sentiment that festered until he addressed them 11 days later. Now, Melvin asserted, “They’ve embraced him.”

“Because of the way he handled it,” Melvin explained. “The way he went to everybody and opened up and was remorseful. And you could tell he was being authentic. He wasn’t just having these conversations just to have them, to check the box. It wasn’t anything like that. And you could feel that.”

When Tatis led a 15- to 20-minute players-only meeting on Aug. 23, he asked for forgiveness but also for help. Subsequent comments from some of the team’s core members painted him as genuine and sincere. Tatis followed by undergoing the left shoulder surgery the Padres recommended a year earlier and later a second cleanup of his injured left wrist. He returned to San Diego in the first week of the new year to begin preparations for the 2023 season, then was among the first to report to the team’s spring training complex in February.

A new season provided a clean slate with his teammates. Tatis’ work ethic set a positive tone. His free spirit and infectious energy often made it seem as if he’d never left.

“I see an excited kid that’s trying to move past a mistake he made,” pitcher Joe Musgrove, one of the team’s leaders, said early in spring training. “He’s talked about it a lot — about how he feels like he lost himself, made some poor decisions and was hanging with people he shouldn’t be hanging around. He was very open and honest about what happened, how he felt about it. You can see this offseason — there’s a level of excitement, a level of energy and passion. You can tell he’s really trying to make that step of getting himself past it and show the world the athlete that he is and the player he’s capable of being.”

Tatis, who turned 24 in January, has quickly gone from one of the sport’s most celebrated prodigies to one of its foremost antiheroes. It’s a circumstance he has readily acknowledged, but one he has referred to as “a challenge,” not unlike anything he might encounter within the boundaries of his profession. He has spoken often about his desire to “embrace” the vitriol. Now it appears he’ll have help.

“We’re all gonna have to deal with it together,” Manny Machado said, “as a team.”


MELVIN’S FIRST SEASON with the Padres, in 2022, didn’t offer many opportunities to connect with Tatis. The ensuing offseason was a chance to make up for lost time. Melvin historically leaves his players alone during the winter, but he felt an obligation to keep in touch with Tatis.

Often the exchanges were lighthearted. Melvin would send videos of hiking trails he’d find in Arizona, a subject in which the two found commonality. Tatis would follow up with pictures of the sun setting on his native Dominican Republic. Occasionally, when it felt natural, they would engage in deeper conversations about what took place and what would follow. Melvin’s message often centered on how quickly this will all move past him once the games begin to pile up and the monotony of a routine sets in. He told Tatis he might someday look back on this positively.

“Things came so easy for him in baseball, and now all of a sudden he had to go through something he wasn’t used to,” Melvin said. “I think he can end up being better for it.”

One of the clearest signs presented itself in late February, on the morning of Tatis’ first spring training game. Melvin took the Padres job in large part because he wanted to manage Tatis, one of the sport’s singular talents. But he spent an entire year without being able to write Tatis’ name in the lineup. When he finally did, Tatis acknowledged the significance. “I’m finally in there for you,” Tatis told him.

“That meant a lot to me,” Melvin said recently. “It just kind of showed you where he was in this process.”

Tatis, allowed to play in exhibition games under the terms of his suspension, began with an eight-pitch walk that was followed by a stolen base. Over his next 18 plate appearances, he reached base only twice and didn’t produce a single hit. He was particularly late on fastballs. But he was making sound swing decisions and his body was recovering better than he expected. An 0-for-16 start to Cactus League play turned into a 12-for-26 finish.

His experience in the outfield followed a similar path. On March 2, Tatis misread a fly ball during his first start in right field, taking a circuitous route and watching the baseball carom off his glove. Two days later, he turned in a nifty sliding catch. He displayed both ends of the spectrum within the same at-bat on March 17, misreading a foul popup that ultimately dropped and then tracking down a line drive to prevent a double. Ten days later, after a handful of aggressive throws that prevented extra bases, he recorded his first outfield assist.

Tatis’ newfound enthusiasm toward the outfield, a position he didn’t quite embrace in 2021, has seemed to resonate in his clubhouse. He grew up wanting to be the Dominican Derek Jeter, a pursuit that ended — or, at the very least, paused — when the Padres signed Xander Bogaerts to an 11-year, $280 million contract in December. But he has readily accepted the change.

“He certainly has aspirations to play shortstop in the future, as he should,” Melvin said. “But there’s an understanding that this is best for our team, and that’s just kind of the way he’s going about it.”

Twenty games remained on Tatis’ suspension when the Padres broke camp in late March, but he declared himself “ready right now.” He proved it during a subsequent rehab stint with the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate, an eight-game stretch in which he slashed .515/.570/1.212 and accumulated seven home runs. Six came in his past three games.

Five came in a stretch of seven at-bats.

Tatis turned on a fastball out over the plate in the second inning last Thursday and sent a prodigious drive into the lawn that resides beyond the outfield fence at Southwest University Park in El Paso, Texas, slightly to the left of the center field batter’s eye. He followed by homering on a line drive in the fourth and a fly ball in the eighth, each pulled a tad more than the other, then smoked two baseballs that left the stadium entirely two days later — one to left field, the other to right-center.

Brett Sullivan, a journeyman catcher who was recently called up to the major leagues, watched them all from the dugout.

“The first two you’re like, ‘Hey, I get it, he’s that good,'” Sullivan said. “And then by the third one you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s locked in.’ And then to go [again] the first game next at-bat, we all started laughing. And then he does it again and you’re like, ‘This guy’s a made-up player.'”

Tatis returned to the Padres’ clubhouse on Monday, for the first of three straight workouts that preceded his return, and Bogaerts told him it seemed as if he were playing a video game. His presence brought a discernable energy.

“You can sense it,” Bogaerts said. “There’s a lot of talk — positive talk, positive vibes. This is a once-in-a-generation-type talent that we’re here to see, and I’m so happy that he’s on our team.”

Bogaerts represents one of four Padres regulars who have yet to play with Tatis, a sign of both how long he has been out and how aggressively the roster has turned over. His suspension occurred 10 days after Padres general manager A.J. Preller emptied his farm system to acquire Juan Soto, who has drawn comparisons to Ted Williams for his advanced feel of hitting. Bogaerts, a four-time All-Star with the Boston Red Sox, has since been added to the mix, sharing the left side of the infield with Machado, who is halfway into a Hall of Fame career.

Tatis will return to lead off in front of all three of them, representing one of the most decorated foursomes in recent memory.

“It’s gonna be really fun,” Soto said.


THOSE WHO HAVE watched Tatis this year have noticed someone who’s outwardly happy to be back but is also committed to maintaining that joy in his play. After throwing out his first runner in spring training, Tatis strutted and and pretended to holster a gun with his fingers. On home runs, he continued to perform his patented stutter-step upon reaching third base, then boisterously celebrated with teammates in the dugout. The threat of backlash has seemingly done nothing to dilute the flair and the swagger that once turned Tatis into a transcendent star. If anything, it has helped accentuate it.

“One of the things we talked about early on was at some point you’re gonna have to forgive yourself and just kinda move past it and try to show everybody who you really are and what’s in there,” Musgrove said. “It’s very easy to walk around and feel like you have to have this certain sense of remorse or you have to show everyone how bad you feel for what you did, but I think he’s done that already and he’s shown what he’s about and the things that he’s gonna do to fix that.”

Tatis’ return to the public consciousness occurred in early February, when the Padres trotted him out as part of a community outreach event, joining members of the Marines and visiting children at a local elementary school. The following day, Tatis was presented alongside Machado, Soto and Bogaerts, and showered with love during a fan fest that was attended by nearly 50,000 residents of San Diego.

Reality hit shortly thereafter. Tatis was roundly booed when the team played in front of a heavy contingent of Los Angeles Dodgers fans at Camelback Ranch on March 8. When he hit his first minor league home run on April 5, the pitcher who gave it up, Kade McClure, called him a “cheater” on Twitter. The animosity will only heighten when the stage gets bigger, particularly from road fans but perhaps also from his own peers.

“He has to be himself if he’s gonna be the player that he is,” Melvin said. “It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks of him; it just matters what we think of him.”

Colorado Rockies outfielder Jurickson Profar, one of Tatis’ closest friends and most ardent supporters on last year’s Padres, has offered similar advice.

“‘Just be you,'” Profar recalled telling him. “‘Play your game, and people are going to love you.’ All the kids, they’re going to love him — because of the way he plays. He’s an exciting baseball player.”

Profar and Tatis still communicate almost daily and, as of the first week of April, were still trying to decide on their annual wager. Usually they settle on who will hit the most home runs, a bet Profar always loses. Profar, who has the benefit of spending his home games at the hitter-friendly Coors Field this season, was instead thinking of making it doubles. But he didn’t feel good about that, either.

“I know he’s gonna be fine,” Profar said of Tatis. “He will find a way to be great.”

Tatis accumulated 39 home runs, 27 stolen bases, a .956 OPS and 6.4 FanGraphs wins above replacement through his first 143 major league games from 2019 to 2020. The Padres rewarded him with what was billed as a “statue contract” — a massive 14-year, $340 million extension — in February 2021, a month after his 22nd birthday, then watched him finish third in MVP voting despite battling a series of shoulder subluxations.

The events that followed completely altered the perception of Tatis and prevented him from doing what he loves most for an entire year. While the Padres made a stirring run to the National League Championship Series last October, Tatis watched from his couch.

“That gave me a lot of fuel,” he said shortly before reporting for spring training. “Trust me.”

Tatis’ return is expected to provide an instant jolt to a team that has lost six of eight games and has scored only two runs over its past 35 innings. As the season plays out, observers expect Tatis to take some overly aggressive routes on fly balls but also expect his arm strength and agility to serve him well in right field. On offense, they think he’ll be the same dynamic hitter and will thrive off the new rules that have allowed for more stolen bases.

Said Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth: “I think a lot of people are forgetting how special he is as a player.”

The big question, of course, revolves around how he’ll ultimately be remembered.

Encouragement can be found within his clubhouse.

Cruz, now a 42-year-old designated hitter for the Padres, has become one of the game’s most celebrated players, a prominent philanthropist revered by his peers and treated like royalty among Latin-born players. His ties to steroids are forever a part of his story, but they are no longer his defining characteristic. Cruz envisions similar possibilities for Tatis, noting how young and charismatic he is and how much baseball lies ahead.

“Two years from now,” Cruz said, “he will be a superstar and this will be in the past.”

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Nats slugger Wood commits to Home Run Derby

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Nats slugger Wood commits to Home Run Derby

Washington Nationals slugger James Wood will bring his massive power to the big stage, becoming the third player to commit to the July 14 Home Run Derby in Atlanta.

Wood, 22, has delivered 22 home runs in 86 games during his first full major league season. He was acquired by the Nationals in 2022 as part of the package of top prospects Washington received in the trade that sent Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres.

Wood announced the commitment on Instagram, with a video montage of himself, along with video clips of former Atlanta Braves star Hank Aaron hitting his record 714th home run in 1974. The video included the words, “Derby bound.”

Wood has 12 homers that have been hit harder than 110 mph. It’s the second most in the league behind Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani‘s 13. Wood also has four dingers that have been launched longer than 445 feet.

The Seattle MarinersCal Raleigh and the Braves’ Ronald Acuna Jr. also have committed to the event, with five more participants still to be named.

Raleigh, who would become the first catcher to win the event, has a major-league-best 33 home runs. Acuna has nine home runs in 36 games after returning from a torn left ACL that also limited him to 49 games last season.

Defending champion Teoscar Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers already has said he will not defend his Home Run Derby crown.

Field Level Media and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Astros GM: Alvarez setback not as bad as feared

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Astros GM: Alvarez setback not as bad as feared

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez‘s setback to his recovery from a fractured right hand is not as serious as first feared, general manager Dana Brown said Thursday.

Alvarez, who suffered the injury on May 2, was shut down after experiencing pain in his right hand. He had taken some swings at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday and when he arrived there Tuesday, the area was sore.

He was examined by a specialist, who determined inflammation was the issue and not a setback with the fracture.

“It had nothing to do with the fracture, or the fracture not being healed,” Brown said before Houston’s game at Colorado. “The fracture at this point is a nonfactor, which we’re very glad about. And so during the process of him being examined by the specialist, we saw the inflammation, and Yordan did receive two shots in that area.”

Alvarez first experienced issues with his hand in late April but stayed in the lineup. He was initially diagnosed with a muscle strain but a small fracture was discovered at the end of May.

Brown said there has not been an update on the timetable for Alvarez’s return but said with the latest update it “could be in the near future.”

“Yordan is going to be in a position where he’s going to let rest and let the shot take effect, and then as long as he’s starting to feel better, we’ll put a bat in his hand before we start hitting, but we’ll just let him feel the bat feels like,” Brown said. “And then we’ll get into some swings in the near future, but I felt like it was encouraging news. Now, with this injection into the area that was inflamed, we feel a lot better.”

Alvarez, who averaged 34 home runs over the previous four seasons, has just three in 29 games this year and is batting .210. He was the 2021 ALCS MVP for the Astros and finished third in the AL MVP voting for 2022.

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Sources: Guardians’ Ortiz faces gambling inquiry

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Sources: Guardians' Ortiz faces gambling inquiry

Cleveland Guardians right-hander Luis Ortiz is under investigation by Major League Baseball after a betting-integrity firm flagged a pair of pitches that had received unusual gambling activity, sources told ESPN on Thursday.

Sources said betting-integrity firm IC360 sent an alert in June to sportsbook operators regarding Ortiz, whom MLB has placed on “non-disciplinary paid leave” through July 17.

The alert, according to sources who reviewed it, referenced action on Ortiz’s first pitches in select innings to be a ball or a hit batsman in two games: June 15 against the Seattle Mariners and June 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals. In both the bottom of the second inning against the Mariners and the top of the third inning against the Cardinals, Ortiz threw a first-pitch slider that was well outside the strike zone.

The alert on Ortiz’s first pitches flagged bets in Ohio, New York and New Jersey. Betting on the result of first pitches is offered by some sportsbooks, with such wagers commonly referred to as microbets.

Ortiz’s paid leave, which ends at the conclusion of the All-Star break, was negotiated between the league and the MLB Players Association. If the investigation remains open, the leave could be extended.

Ortiz had been scheduled to start Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs.

“The Guardians have been notified that Luis Ortiz has been placed on leave per an agreement with the Players Association due to an ongoing league investigation,” the team said in a statement. “The Guardians are not permitted to comment further at this time and will respect the league’s confidential investigative process.”

The investigation into Ortiz’s potential violation of the league’s gambling policy comes a little more than a year after MLB levied a lifetime ban against San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano for placing nearly 400 bets on baseball. Four other players received one-year suspensions for gambling on baseball while in the minor leagues. In February, MLB fired umpire Pat Hoberg — widely recognized as the best ball-strike arbiter in the game — for “sharing” a legal sports betting account with a friend who bet on baseball and later deleting messages key to the investigation.

A 26-year-old starting pitcher, Ortiz was acquired by Cleveland from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the winter as part of the three-team trade in which the Guardians sent second baseman Andres Gimenez to the Toronto Blue Jays. With a 4-9 record and 4.36 ERA, Ortiz has been a staple in a Guardians rotation whose 4.13 ERA ranks 18th in MLB.

Ortiz’s leave comes amid a slide for the Guardians, who have lost six consecutive games to drop to 40-44. While Cleveland remains in second place in the American League Central, it trails first-place Detroit by 12½ games.

Ortiz signed with the Pirates in 2018 at 19 years old, far later than the typical prospect, and didn’t reach full-season ball until 2021. He quickly shot through the Pittsburgh organization and debuted in 2022, eventually throwing 238⅓ innings and posting a 3.93 ERA in his three seasons with the Pirates.

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