Padres 2nd Half Preview

The Padres have a lot of questions to answer before they'll know if they can be playoff contenders this year. Let's go over them and see if we can find answers.

The all-star break is over! It was both long and short at the same time. The San Diego Padres take on the New York Mets at Citi Field this evening, and there are a lot of questions left to answer to help determine what the final 68 games of the season will look like for the Padres.

So, that’s how I want to structure this post today. I will come up with questions facing the team and then I will do my best to guess at their answers. Let’s get into it.

When will Tatis return and what will he look like when he does?

It sounds like we’re just a few weeks away from Fernando Tatis Jr. playing in some minor-league games. If he gets in them and immediately looks amazing, I imagine he’ll be up quickly. Let’s imagine he finishes the final 6 weeks of the MLB season on the active roster.

The good news about Tatis is that he’s really young and has shown a propensity for healing quickly and bouncing back fast. There’s a chance, a very small one, that he looks like 2021 Tatis when he makes it back to the Padres.

There are much better odds that Tatis is a really good shortstop with excellent speed who has about 50% of the power he had last year, considering how much time he has spent letting his wrist heal instead of keeping it strong. Still, that probably makes him one of the 2-3 best players on the roster when he makes it back.