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San Diego Padres Star Fernando Tatis Jr. Does Something No One in Baseball Has Done This Year

With a spectacular outfield assist on Tuesday, Tatis Jr. is in a class all his own defensively.

Brady Farkas

San Diego Padres Star Fernando Tatis Jr. Does Something No One in Baseball Has Done This Year
San Diego Padres Star Fernando Tatis Jr. Does Something No One in Baseball Has Done This Year /
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San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. seems to be taking to the outfield well...

Tatis Jr. moved to right field full-time this season after the team signed Xander Bogaerts to play shortstop and in not even a month of action, Tatis Jr. has already accomplished something that no one in baseball has this year.

Sarah Langs of MLB.com tweeted about the impressive defensive accomplishment:

that’s a 96.8 mph OF assist from Fernando Tatis Jr. 

he had one at 100.0 mph on 5/10 

he’s the only OF with multiple tracked 96+ mph assists so far this season

Tatis Jr. threw out Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino at third base on Tuesday night in that impressive play. 

It is one of the more impressive throws you'll see from a rightfielder, up there with Ichiro throwing out Terrance Long in 2001 and any number of throws from Vladimir Guerrero Sr.

Tatis Jr. came back from a PED suspension on April 20th so the fact that that's already accomplished this in about half the games as other outfielders make it even more impressive.

At the plate, Tatis Jr. is hitting .287 with five homers and 12 RBI in 101 at-bats. He's also posted an .812 OPS.

For his career, he's a .292 hitter with 86 homers and 207 RBIs. He's also added 55 steals. He was named an All-Star in 2021, a silver slugger in both 2020 and 2021 and he finished third in Rookie of the Year voting in 2019.

The Padres play the Royals on Wednesday at 4:10 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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