Padres: Fernando Tatis Jr. Fading in MVP Race Amid Current Slump

The San Diego Padres have been led by their talented you shortstop all year, but he couldn’t be struggling at a worse time for his MVP hopes.

There is no question that Fernando Tatis Jr. has led the San Diego Padres to a resurgent season in 2020 and is a big reason they are heading to the postseason for the first time in 14 years.

For most of the season he’s been the favorite to win the NL MVP award, but that might be changing as Tatis has had a terrible month of September.

Just a week ago I wrote that the MVP award was his to lose, and he’s certainly trying to lose it as he’s hitting just .200 in September with just 2 hits in his last 7 games.

I also wrote on Tuesday that Dinelson Lamet had his signature moment to firmly put him in the NL Cy Young race.

Right now Tatis’ signature moment for most of the votes is a grand slam he hit on a 3-0 count in a meaningless game.

I’m certainly hoping he can have that big moment in the last game of their series against the Dodgers. He’s had some chances in the series already but has yet to come through.

If he can get a big hit on Wednesday that gives them the lead and propels them to a series win, then that could certainly get him back on the right track.

The overall numbers are still there for the young shortstop, which tells you just how great a month he had in August.

And he still leads all NL players in WAR according to FanGraphs, but Freddie Freeman is quickly catching up to him.

Right now those are the two frontrunners for the award and it could come down to which player is better in these last two weeks.

If the vote were to take place today I still think Tatis Jr. would be the winner. But it’s certainly a lot closer now than it was a week ago. And if he doesn’t turn things around soon he could see the award slip out of his hands.