San Diego Padres superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended 80 games Friday for violating Major League Baseball’s joint drug agreement. announced that he had tested positive.
Following the news of the suspension, the Padres released the following statement:
“Today, I was shocked to learn that Fernando Tatis Jr. has tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s joint prevention and treatment program and has since been suspended for 80 games without pay. We are very disappointed, we fully support this program and hope that Fernando will learn from this experience.”
Tatis, 23, would have to return from the injured list to receive an 80-game suspension and would be ineligible for the playoffs if the Padres did. The Padres have 48 games left this season, including Friday night, so this suspension will also wipe out a good chunk of his 2023 season.
Tatis released the following statement:
Major League Baseball has informed me that the test sample I submitted returned a positive result for Clostebol. I should have used the resources available to me to make sure that what I ingested did not contain any banned substances.
I want to apologize to Peter, AJ and the entire Padres organization, my teammates, Major League Baseball and fans around the world for my mistakes. Never take it lightly.
I have taken countless drug tests throughout my professional career, including March 29, 2022, all of which have returned negative results up until this point.
I am completely devastated. There is no place in the world I would rather be than competing on the field with my teammates. After initially complaining to stop, I realized that my mistake was the cause of this result, so I decided to start the stop immediately. I look forward to rejoining my teammates on the field in 2023.
Tatis is in the second year of a 14-year, $340 million deal.
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In 130 games last season, Tatis posted .282/.364/.611 (165 OPS+) with 31 doubles, 42 home runs, 97 RBIs, 99 runs scored, 25 stolen bases and 6.6 WARs. He finished 3rd in the NL MVP voting after finishing his 4th place in 2020. He was one of the best players in baseball when he was on the field. He broke his leg in a motorcycle accident. Currently, he has missed his 80 games due to his PED violation.
The Padres went in 63-51 on Friday, good enough to put the Brewers one game ahead and claim the third and final NL wildcard spot. They recently made headlines with the acquisition of Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Josh Hader and Brandon Drury before the trade deadline. This is 2 consecutive wins from 5 consecutive losses.
As for how the Padres move forward without Tatis, well, they’ve been playing without him all season. There was, but really, the team has already played the majority of the season without him, so it’s just going down this road.