Book Excerpt:
Comebacker
Tatis Tops List of Unexpected Surprises
By Matthew Silverman
Before March of 2008, when Fernando Tatis arrived in Mets training camp—several weeks late because of a visa problem—all that most fans recalled about his career was that he was the only player in history to hit two grand slams in one inning. And that had occurred 10 seasons earlier. Tatis, however, made sure Mets fans would remember him, enjoying his best season since 1999, the year he hit 34 homers and drove in 107 for the Cardinals—and cleared the bases and cleared the wall twice against Chan Ho Park in the third inning on April 23 at Dodger Stadium.
For his superb 2008 efforts, Tatis was named National League Comeback Player by both the Major League Players Association and The Sporting News. Tatis endeared himself to both the Mets and Mets fans despite starting the season in the minors and ending it on the disabled list. Tatis was recalled from New Orleans on May 13 following a right shoulder injury to Angel Pagan (ironically, an injury to that same shoulder would end Tatis’s season four months later). In his four months in the major leagues in 2008, Tatis hit 11 home runs and knocked in 47 while batting .297 with a .369 on-base percentage and .484 slugging percentage. Though he had only played the outfield four times in nearly 700 career major league games heading into the season, he appeared 90 times in the outfield in 2008 (51 games in left field and 39 in right) and committed just two errors. What really surprised people, though, was his hitting, especially late in games. And especially at Shea Stadium.
He hit .350 at home, with a .409 on-base percentage and .545 slugging. And while he regularly played against lefties—hitting .311/.393/.415 in that role—he actually saw more time against right-handers, collecting 10 of his 11 homers against righties for a surprising line of .287/.353/.527. For the season, he hit .392 with a .483 OBP with runners in scoring position, and a .357 average with a .431 OBP with runners on base, tops on the team among regulars in these categories. His bat was sorely missed after he separated his right shoulder diving for a fly ball hit by Washington’s Odalis Perez on September 16. (Perez wound up scoring the only run of a gut-wrenching defeat.) The loss of Tatis, coupled with a leg injury to veteran infielder Damion Easley, crippled the Mets bench and rendered them especially vulnerable to lefties during the final two weeks of the season.
The Mets clearly understood the value of Tatis, re-signing him a month after the season to a $1.17 million, one-year deal. That was good news for both the Mets and Tatis’s hometown of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic.
He had been out of professional baseball at age 29, having come up as a much heralded prospect with Texas in 1997, starring in St. Louis while batting behind Mark McGwire, but then injuries totally derailed him in Montreal, and he was out of baseball after not making Tampa Bay in spring training 2004. Tatis got back into the game two years later because he wanted to raise money to buy land to build a church near his home. The Orioles signed him to a minor league contract in 2006 after he hadn’t picked up a bat for two years. He played 25 games for Baltimore that year—batting .250—and then signed with the Dodgers. Los Angeles released him during spring training and the Mets picked him up, keeping him in New Orleans for all of 2007 and playing him exclusively at third base. It was during that period that former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell sought Tatis’s medical records along with several other Orioles for their investigation regarding steroids in baseball. Tatis’s name, however, was not included in the December 2007 Mitchell Report.
Visa problems kept him out of Mets camp until March 13, 2008, and he still just missed making the team out of Port St. Lucie. Yet it wasn’t long before he was at Shea Stadium.
Tatis is 34 as the 2009 season begins and he is looked on again to contribute off the bench and in the outfield. His right shoulder did not require surgery and he played third base for Estrellas de Oriente in the Dominican Winter League. Coming into the new season, the Mets anticipate more out of Tatis than they did coming out of camp in 2008, when he was sent down to the minors in favor of Brady Clark (who batted eight times before he was designated for assignment three weeks into the season). Tatis filled in for Moises Alou when the veteran got hurt, played right field on a regular basis when Ryan Church twice went on the disabled list due to concussion aftereffects, and he platooned in left field with Daniel Murphy once Church came back. Tatis also played first base six times and spelled David Wright four times at third base (starting twice).
So much for retirement. Tatis now has the funds for his church and the Mets have a find in the outfield. The Mets are banking that Tatis continues both his versatility and his reliability in 2009. Tatis will have to prove that unlike hitting two grand slams in one inning, his resurgence fluke.
Fernando’s Greatest Hits
Fernando Tatis, five years removed from his last 100 at-bat season and a decade past his best season in the major leagues, was a key contributor to a decimated Mets outfield in 2008. He seemed at his best late in the game or when the Mets were most in need.
May 28: Just two weeks after his callup and with Willie Randolph under fire, his two-run double drives home the tying and winning runs at Shea in the 12th inning to beat the first-place Marlins.
July 2: Tatis caps off a rally with a pinch-hit single to drive in his first run since June 15. Unfortunately, the bullpen turns a 7-5 lead in St. Louis into an 8-7 loss.
July 6: After the Phillies tie the game with a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth, Tatis hits a two-run homer in the 12th inning to beat the first-place Phillies.
July 10: After doubling in two runs early in the game, Tatis snaps a tie with a two-run home run in a sweep of the Giants and give the Mets their sixth straight win.
July 17: Tatis doubles in two runs in Cincinnati to give the Mets the lead in the sixth; after the Mets rally to retake the lead in the ninth, Tatis delivers an insurance run to help the Mets win their 10th straight.
July 28: With the Mets down a run in the ninth, Tatis homers to tie the game. Although the Cardinals eventually win in 14 innings, the next day Tatis repeats his three-hit, one-homer performance in a Mets victory.
August 5: Coming off a 1-5 trip, Tatis homers to tie the game in the fourth and hits a three-run shot to overcome a 2-1 deficit in the sixth. The Mets end a four-game losing streak—against both the league and the Padres, who swept New York in June.
August 14: Tatis walks his first three times up and then doubles to start a four-run rally in the ninth to break open a tight game in Washington.
August 26: Tatis singles in a run in the first and clubs a three-run home run in the third to forge a 6-0 lead in Philadelphia. The Phillies rally to win the game in 13, a signature loss for a Mets bullpen quite adept at handing away leads.
September 10: Tatis knocks in a pair of runs in a 13-10 win over the Nationals. It is his 13th multiple-RBI game of the season, but it is also his last; he will be injured in the ensuing road trip in Washington and be lost for the season.
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