Tom Brennan: Before There Was a Fernando Tatis, Jr…..

 

FERNANDO TATIS IN A PHOTO USED BY MACK IN A MARCH 2010 ARTICLE

Before there was a Fernando Tatis, Jr.….there obviously had to be a Fernando Tatis.  

And, of course, Papa played for the Mets.  

Remarkably, he played REALLY WELL for the Mets.

Before his Mets stint, he came up to the bigs in 1997 with Texas at age 22 and did pretty well.

Then he had his 1999 special with the Cardinals, where he smashed 34 HRs, knocked in 107, and hit back-to-back grand slams in a single game against a single pitcher tossing for the Dodgers. Some days, pitchers should just call in sick.

But, Tatis eventually, at ages 27 and 28, had back to back weak years for Montreal in 2002 and 2003, hitting only about .215 over the two seasons, then got cut in 2004 spring training.  Over?  Not so fast.

He left baseball and, over the next two years, decided he needed to return to the big leagues so he could build a church, per Wikipedia:

In fact, in 2008, Anthony DiComo wrote this:

“The reason Fernando Tatis returned to baseball after two years out of the game, he said on Monday, had little to do with the fact that he wanted to play baseball. Sure, some part of him did miss the game. But mostly he just wanted to build a church.

His entire community in the Dominican Republic wanted to build a church, in fact, and if Tatis signed a Major League contract, he would have the money to do so. The problem was, no team particularly wanted an aging infielder with seemingly little to give.

But Tatis wanted to build a church, and so he told his family that he was going to return to the Major Leagues. This happened roughly a week before the phone rang.

It was the Orioles. They were interested. And now?

"The church is built," Tatis said. "It's beautiful, and we got it."”

He returned to AAA, with just a little MLB time and winter ball, in 2006 and 2007. He was nonetheless determined.  Faith works wonders.

The Mets scooped him up for AAA in 2007, where he hit .276 for New Orleans, still without a call up to the Mets. 

Then, he hit just .242 in 37 AAA games early in 2008, but with 12 HRs.

Injuries happened. So…

The Mets called him up in mid-May and, in 2008 and 2009, he did what few Mets retread pick ups who are called up do.  

He flat out excelled.

In 2008 and 2009, for the Mets, at ages 33 and 34, he did this:

613 at bats, 40 doubles, 5 triples, 19 HRs, and 95 RBIs.  Wow!

Funny, his superstar son’s 2026 projections, in Baseball Reference?

Not as good…

589 plate appearances, 26 doubles, 23 HRs, 67 RBIs, .269/.350/.455.

And, in July 2008, Papa’s slash line was .397/.463/.767.  WHATTTTT?!

In 2010, at age 35, he played briefly and faded away, but all told, he played parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues.

Now….if the Mets can only get his son, FT Jr., too, because we all know that a Tatis can rake in Queens.  

I think the translation of “Tatis” is “royally rake in Queens.”

All that to say, maybe FT, Jr. will end up playing in NY, in Queens, like his dad.  That would be cool.  

He can even build another Tatis church if he likes.  I’ll come sing at it.

BENGE BEAUTY

Saw this re: Baseball America…

“Carson Benge's 150 wRC+ ranked 19th in the minors among batters with 400+ plate appearances.

“Could he hit his way into the Mets' outfield mix early in 2026?”

My thoughts? 

A rank of 19th in weighted runs created, as a first full year pro player, is pretty stunning.