Padres News: Fernando Tatis Jr. is Showing He’s a Dual Threat Player

Tatis Jr. is on a hot streak on both sides of the ball.

The first play on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s 2023 season highlight reel has to be the incredible throw he made late in Thursday's game to set up the tag-out of a would-be run-scorer. The extra effort kept the Padres' lead to a run as they entered the ninth, going on to win the series 2-1 against the mighty Tampa Bay Rays.

This play is just one example of the stellar 2023 Tatis Jr. is having. Despite missing the first 21 games of the season, the 24-year-old is a top 6 betting favorite to win the NL MVP, and has a series case to make in the Golden Glove conversation.

In the month of June, Tatis Jr. is hitting .400/.500/.817, and (I'll save you the math) a whopping 1.317 OPS. In those 16 games, he also has hit 5 home runs and accounted for 15 RBI.

Fernando Tatis Jr’s last 15 games:

21 hits
5 HR
11 RBI
6 SB
.375/.478/.768
1.246 OPS

And he’s been the best defensive right fielder in all of baseball. He’s back to being a top 5 player in the sport.
pic.twitter.com/UgzBf2EMSi

— MLB Metrics (@MLBMetrics) June 19, 2023

Tatis Jr. has yet to commit an error in June, and has only been responsible for two all season. He is credited with 5 runs prevented and 6 outs above average.

Tatis Jr.'s arm strength has been a key factor behind his defensive prowess. At 95.6 mph on average, according to Baseball Savant, Tatis Jr. throws almost 5 mph faster than the average MLB right fielder.

Tatis Jr.'s hot June has driven the Padres to a monster surge as of late. While the Friars still sit a game behind .500 at the time of this article's writing, they are 10-6 in June and coming off a series win against what many consider to be the best team in baseball.

Should the Padres and Tatis Jr. continue their hot streaks, the Golden Glove conversation should really heat up around the young Padres star.