Fernando Tatis Jr. and the San Diego Padres have agreed to a record-breaking 14-year extension, the club announced Monday. The contract is worth $340 million, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Tatis will gain a full no-trade clause for all 14 years of the deal, according to Scott Miller.
Tatis Jr., who's still just 22 years of age, has thrived throughout his young career. In 143 games across two seasons with San Diego, Tatis has batted .301/.374/.582 (154 OPS+) with 39 home runs and 27 stolen bases. That's exceptional production for any player, let alone a young shortstop. This past season, Tatis won a Silver Slugger and finished third in the NL MVP balloting. Tatis' performance to date is in keeping with his former status as the consensus top prospect in all of baseball, which is in part why the Padres are comfortable making such a large investment in him.
Our own Mike Axisa recently pegged Tatis as a strong candidate for an extension. Here's what he wrote at the time:
"The best benchmark at this service-time level is Alex Bregman, who signed a six-year extension worth $100.6 million with the Astros in March 2019. A six-year deal would buy out Tatis' four remaining years of team control plus two free agent years, and allow him to become a free agent at age 27. That contract values Bregman's free agent years at $30.5 million apiece. If we stick with that and turn the six-year deal into a 15-year deal, we're talking $375 million in guaranteed money. It's very possible Tatis could receive a $400 million extension in the not-too-distant future."
As it turned out, Tatis basically hit that mark, albeit for 14 years instead of 15, hence the slightly lower overall value. Tatis' $340 million extension once finalized will become the largest in Padres' franchise history, breaking the record set by Tatis' fellow member of the left side of the infield Manny Machado ($300 million). It will also become the third-largest contract in MLB history in terms of total value behind just Mike Trout's and Mookie Betts' current deals. At 14 years, Tatis' extension is the longest contract, which breaks the record of 13 years shared by Giancarlo Stanton and Bryce Harper.
Largest contracts in MLB history:
- Mike Trout, $426,500,000
- Mookie Betts, $365,000,000
- Fernando Tatis Jr., $340,000,000
The Padres and general manager A.J. Preller now have one of the brightest young stars to hit MLB in a long time locked up for more than a decade. The deal also caps a highly successful offseason for Preller and the Padres. Prior to this reported agreement, the Padres most notably fortified the rotation with trades for had Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and Joe Musgrove.
Coming off a 2020 season in which they made the postseason and logged the highest win percentage in team history, the Padres are positioned to contend for years to come -- with Tatis, his star power, and his MVP upside helming those efforts every step of the way.
