Padres Give Prospect A Big Promotion

Slugging shortstop Tatis Jr. skips a level for playoffs push

When the Padres kept 22-year-old Manuel Margot, 22-year-old Miguel Diaz, 21-year-old Allen Cordoba and 20-year-old Luis Torrens on the Opening Day roster they showed they are not afraid to challenge young players early in their careers.

So the aggressiveness of this move is not terribly surprising.

On Monday the Padres will promote 18-year-old shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. from Low-A Fort Wayne up two levels to Double-A San Antonio to help the Missions on their Texas League playoff run.

With a monster 2017 season in the Midwest League, Tatis has turned in to one of the hottest prospects in all of baseball. He set a TinCaps franchise record with 21 home runs and is the first 18-year-old in league history to record a 20-20 season (he has 29 stolen bases). Tatis also sports a .910 OPS, a ridiculous number at any level for a teenager.

Tatis is bypassing High-A Lake Elsinore for the time-being to get him some playoff experience but it might not be permanent. The Padres did the same thing last year, sending catching prospect Austin Allen from Fort Wayne to San Antonio for the end of the season. Allen has spent the entire 2017 season in Lake Elsinore where he earned California League Player of the Month honors for July.

The Padres might take the same strategy with Tatis and send him to the Storm for 2018. Well, unless he mauls Texas League pitching the way he has in Fort Wayne and forces San Diego’s hand to move him to a higher level.

This year the Padres have promoted several of their top prospects to Double-A, including pitchers Cal Quantrill, Eric Lauer, Jacob Nix and Joey Lucchesi and infielders Josh Naylor and Javier Guerra.

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