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The Padres hope they never have to see Fernando Tatis Jr. play a game in another uniform.
The team and their wonderful shortstop took a giant step towards that goal on Wednesday by agreeing to the terms of a 14-year contract, according to multiple sources.
The deal is worth $ 340 million and is the longest in MLB history. It is the biggest contract awarded to a player not yet eligible for arbitration and the third richest behind the $ 365 million over 12 years that Mookie Betts got from the Dodgers last season and the $ 360 million on 10 years that Mike Trout got in 2019.
Tatis, who turned 22 on Jan. 2 and has two years of service, has yet to play the equivalent of a full season. But he finished fourth in the National League MVP vote in 2020 after beating .277 with a .937 OPS (slugging percentage on plus base).
In 143 games since the start of the 2019 season, Tatis is averaging 0.301 and 0.956 OPS. These are numbers that compare favorably to the best players in history at this point in their careers. Tatis’s OPS, for example, is one point lower than Lou Gehrig in his first 143 games and 10 points lower than Mike Trout’s.
His shortstop defense was spectacular from the start and last year stabilized to become more consistent. He led all shortstops and finished second in majors last season with seven above-average strikeouts, a metric that ostensibly measures how many strikeouts a player has saved compared to an average player at his position.
The Padres and Tatis anticipated this pact for several months. The parties agreed over the summer to engage in serious talks during the offseason.
Padres general manager AJ Preller visited the Dominican Republic shortly after the New Year and told Tatis he would open talks with the player’s agent soon. The Padres made their first formal offer at the end of January.
Preller and Dan Lozano, Tatis’ agent, met regularly over the next two weeks, discussing parameters and business proposals. Tatis visited the sports complex in Peoria on Sunday, and there was optimism on all sides and were close to a deal.
Finally, on Wednesday, after some new back and forth proposals on the complicated pact, the team informed Lozano that the latest terms they had discussed were acceptable.
Tatis’s contract is much longer and richer than the notable pacts granted to other top young players in recent years. Most of these contracts have typically only extended two or three seasons in a player’s free agency year.
Ronald Acuña Jr. got an eight-year, $ 100 million contract in 2019, when he was 21, after playing less than a season. Alex Bregman, then 25, was given a five-year, $ 100 million contract in 19 after playing more than two seasons. Trout, 22 at the time, was awarded six years and $ 144 million in 2014 after playing more than two seasons.
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