San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. is bracing for an extended stint on the injured list with a femoral stress reaction in his right leg.
Tatis was placed on the 10-day injured list Monday but understands that the diagnosis signals his absence is likely to stretch well into July and possibly beyond.
“It’s a huge gap. I don’t want to put it out there because people are going to (speculate),” Tatis said of his injury to the quadriceps area. “It’s going to be some time. We know … we’re trying to aim after the All-Star Game but we’re talking about something serious in my bone in my right leg.
“Let’s just not fool ourself. Everybody knows it’s going to be more than the 10 days.”
Tatis, 25, said the concern from medical staff is the stress reaction becomes a fracture. Imaging last week proved the team’s first diagnosis of a strained quad muscle was inaccurate. Tatis was fighting symptoms of the injury since the season-opening series in April in South Korea, when he first felt cramps “all throughout my body.”
“It’s been a long one. It’s been progressive,” Tatis said.
Because of the longevity of the symptoms, doctors urged Tatis not to continue playing through discomfort because a fracture in that area can carry a recovery time of more than three months. It’s not uncommon for femoral stress reactions to be treated as muscle strains, especially in runners and soccer players since the symptoms often present similarly with muscle tightness and cramps.
The loss of Tatis is a critical one for the Padres. He’s batting .279 with 14 home runs this season, and hit .365 with six multi-hit games and 10 extra-base hits in 19 games in June.
Tatis is also recovering from an elbow contusion that had kept him on the bench since the fifth inning Friday night.
“He could still play — because he’s been playing with it,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “But it’s something that’s not going to get better unless we rest it.”
Tatis has 10 years and more than $300 million remaining on his current contract.
The Padres got other bad news on the injury front when Tuesday night’s scheduled starter, Yu Darvish, had a setback after making a rehab start Wednesday night at High-A Fort Wayne. Darvish hit the injured list nearly a month ago with a left groin strain but now has elbow inflammation.
–Field Level Media