Padres News: MLB Insider Believes Players ‘Penalized’ Fernando Tatis Jr’s PED Past with All-Star Snub
Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the most exciting players in all of baseball. He electrifies audiences each time out with his skillset and it has helped lead him to being one of the more entertaining players in the game. Especially for a sport where sometimes fun can be seen as a bad thing, Tatis Jr. has taken charge and is helping break that outdated mindset. However, even with all his skillset, it didn’t help him make the All-Star team this season.
On the year, the San Diego Padres superstar is hitting .280 with 16 home runs and 41 runs batted in. On the surface, those look like numbers for someone deserving to be an All-Star but he did tarnish his reputation a bit when he was suspended last season for PED use. MLB analyst Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has more on this:
"I sort of hate that Fernando Tatis Jr. was not among the initial selections for the MLB All-Star Game. But I also sort of love it. I hate it because Tatis is one of the best, most exciting players in the game, the kind of player the sport needs to showcase. I love it because Tatis’ peers effectively penalized him for testing positive last season for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program."
He was suspended for 80 games that carried over into this season as he didn't make his debut until April 20. But even with that, he ranked sixth in the National League in cumulative fWAR. It just shows how good of a player he is and how disappointing it was for him to be suspended for PED use.
"The All-Star Game often is referred to as a fans’ game because the fans elect all of the starters except the pitchers. But the players’ participation in the voting process makes it a players’ game, too. And on Tatis, the players have spoken."
His peers clearly made an example of him with this All-Star snub. He deserves to be an All-Star but there are consequences for actions and Tatis must face that.
PED use has no place in the game of baseball and hopefully the first suspension will show Tatis Jr. the error of his ways. He is too talented of a baseball player to get caught up in these types of things and it would be sad to see his career get flushed away.
Even without the All-Star label, people around the game know how good he is. Without the distraction of the All-Star festivities, maybe Tatis Jr. can look ahead to the rest of the season and how he and the Padres can turn things around. This could end up being a good part of a bad situation.
