Statues might be produced from many alternative supplies: stone, bronze, concrete, wooden, and so forth. The concept is to make use of one thing sturdy and lasting, one thing befitting a everlasting monument that always serves as a degree of delight.
In different phrases, clay can be a foul selection. That’s the place the expression toes of clay comes from, connoting a weak basis, a flaw that might deliver down an individual of honor. Which brings us to Fernando Tatis Jr.
When the San Diego Padres signed Tatis to a 14-year, $340 million contract in February 2021, he matched the boldness of their funding with an announcement simply as audacious: “I need the statue.” Then Tatis led the Nationwide League in residence runs and almost received a Most Invaluable Participant Award, all earlier than his twenty third birthday.
If it appeared too good to be true, perhaps it was. Main League Baseball suspended Tatis for 80 video games on Friday, ending his season earlier than it started and casting doubt on the knowledge of the Padres’ dedication to him. Tatis examined optimistic for Clostebol, a performance-enhancing drug.
The suspension ends a troubling season for Tatis, who had wrist surgical procedure in March after injuring himself within the low season by falling off his bike — greater than as soon as, he acknowledged. He started a rehabilitation task final week, however his 4 video games with Class AA San Antonio will represent all of his efficiency for 2022.
The Padres had 48 video games remaining on their schedule on the time of the announcement, that means that Tatis’ suspension will bleed effectively into 2023. The absence of so many video games on his ledger shall be a testomony to the recklessness of a participant who had been hailed as a outstanding a part of baseball’s future.
“It seems that I inadvertently took a drugs to deal with ringworm that contained Clostebol,” Tatis mentioned in an announcement issued by the M.L.B. Gamers’ Affiliation. “I ought to have used the sources out there to me with a purpose to be certain that no banned substances have been in what I took. I failed to take action.”
He apologized to the Padres, the league and the followers, and whereas he identified that he had by no means failed a drug take a look at earlier than this, he added that he had “no excuse for my error.” Tatis mentioned he initially appealed the suspension, however dropped it as a result of his carelessness brought about the consequence.
“I’m utterly devastated,” the assertion mentioned.
So are the Padres, whose basic supervisor, A.J. Preller, instructed the San Diego Union-Tribune that the workforce must rebuild belief with its cornerstone participant: “Over the course of the final six or seven months, I believe that’s been one thing that we haven’t actually been capable of have.”
Preller made the splashiest transfer of the Aug. 2 buying and selling deadline, buying the famous person outfielder Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals. Soto, who can’t be a free agent till after the 2024 season, headlined a summer time haul that additionally included first baseman Josh Bell, nearer Josh Hader and the utility man Brandon Drury. When the Padres received Soto’s debut in a rout — helped by Drury becoming a member of the “Slam Diego” membership with a grand slam — the sold-out crowd might need felt an added excessive: all this, and shortly Tatis, too!
Actuality intruded within the Padres’ subsequent collection, although, on the highway towards the Los Angeles Dodgers, which ended within the Dodgers’ emphatic three-game sweep.
The Padres nonetheless held one of many N.L.’s three wild-card spot when M.L.B. introduced Tatis’s suspension, nevertheless it was a unfastened grip: only one recreation forward of the Milwaukee Brewers within the loss column. And this can be a workforce that went 11-30 down the stretch to blow a playoff spot final season, with Tatis hitting .245 in these last 41 video games.
With the season slipping away in September, Tatis obtained right into a dugout argument with the veteran third baseman Manny Machado, who screamed and cursed at him. “It’s not about you,” Machado scolded Tatis after Tatis had pouted a few referred to as third strike. “You go play baseball,” he added.
Even so, Tatis completed the season with a formidable set of statistics: a .282 common, a .975 on-base plus slugging share, and 99 runs scored and 97 runs batted in to go together with his 42 homers. He completed third within the voting for the N.L. M.V.P., behind Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper, the winner, and Soto, the runner-up.
Tatis adopted up by evidently overestimating his motorcycling abilities. However he nonetheless had an opportunity to make the yr particular, to develop into the ultimate addition to a fortified roster chasing the primary championship in franchise historical past.
The 2 Padres gamers honored with statues at Petco Park, Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman, couldn’t ship it. Neither may one other Corridor of Famer, Dave Winfield, the primary participant depicted in a Padres cap on his plaque. Tatis has time to win a title, however his legacy — the statue, the day in Cooperstown, the validity of his achievements — could by no means develop the best way he anticipated.
