'Very fixable': Padres address Tatis' throws

SAN DIEGO -- Fernando Tatis Jr. has spent two stints on the injured list this season, totaling 20 days, yet he's still the only player in the Majors with more than 10 home runs and 10 steals.

Remarkable, right?

There's a flip side to that, however. Tatis has spent two stints on the IL. Yet, he's still the only player in the Majors who has more than 10 errors. A season after Tatis emerged as a certifiable Gold Glove candidate at shortstop, he has endured a jarring amount of defensive regression.

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Let's ignore the four fielding errors. That's a relatively unremarkable number (even though he committed only one across 59 games last season). Tatis has been OK fielding the baseball. He's still very rangy, though perhaps culpable for a blunder or two more than you'd expect.

Throwing the baseball has been a different story. Tatis committed his eighth throwing error of the season Tuesday night in the second inning of the Padres' 7-1 victory over the Brewers. That's tied with Luis Urías for the most in the Majors, and it's become a serious concern -- even if the frequency of those throwing errors has eased up a bit.

The good news?

"It's a little tough on him right now," said renowned infield wiz Bobby Dickerson, the Padres' third-base coach. "But 100%, it's very fixable."

Dickerson and the Padres have noticed a theme behind Tatis' throwing errors. Notably, he has subconsciously thrown off his own timing off by getting a bit too tall after fielding the baseball.

That, in turn, puts the onus on Tatis' arm strength. He loses his rhythm and tries to make up for it with a laser throw to first base -- of which he's very capable. But if Tatis' timing is right, Dickerson said, that shouldn't be necessary.

"It's just still inconsistent right now," said Dickerson, who helped groom Manny Machado in Baltimore. "He's had some moments where I go, 'OK, he's back, his clock is good again.' But he's got a curse -- he's got a great arm. He's got a great cannon."

That last part was said tongue-in-cheek. Of course you want a shortstop capable of delivering 90 mph missiles to first base. You'd just prefer that -- most of the time, at least -- he doesn't need to.

"He comes up out of his legs, he doesn't stay in his legs, and then he tries to hose up," Dickerson said. "I don't think he's necessarily doing it on purpose. Sometimes it just speeds up. ... More than anything, I want to keep his rhythm right, stay in his legs, throw the slow people out by 10 steps, throw the fast people out by a step."

One aspect of Tatis' throwing errors has been dissected ad nauseum on social media: the scoops of first baseman Eric Hosmer. The Padres aren't having that. Hosmer has struggled a bit at first this year, committing four errors himself. But Dickerson heaped praise on Hosmer's defensive skill set and his leadership in the infield. On Tatis' throws, Dickerson gave Hosmer a pass.

"When it's a pickable ball, he usually picks it," Dickerson said. "He hasn't helped Tatis, but those balls are 95 mph with crazy sink on them. They're not true skips. He's getting eaten up on those. That is one thing I'd like to see him continue to work on. But, again, I'm very pleased with where Eric is."

All of that said, it's worth pointing out that Tatis' errors are getting fewer and further between. After 10 errors in April, he has committed only two in May. Tatis has two consecutive stretches of six error-free games.

The goal, of course, is to be error-free for longer stretches than that. Last season, Tatis committed only three errors all season. But, as manager Jayce Tingler is quick to point out: Last season, Tatis was healthy all year. The stop-start nature of his 2021 season has almost certainly thrown his timing out of whack. That said, the recent trends are positive.

"Just continue to play low, continuing to stay in his legs, not pop up out of that 6-foot-4 frame," Tingler said. "When he's throwing the ball well, he plays shortstop lower. That's the main key."