Fernando Tatis Jr. silently joined Bobby Witt Jr., Mookie Betts in rarefied air

There are louder ways to announce superstardom. Fifty-homer seasons and MVP campaigns that hijack every national broadcast.

Fernando Tatis Jr. didn’t really do any of that in 2025. Instead, he put together a full, relentless season — and it landed him in a statistical tier reserved for the game’s true unicorns.

Fernando Tatis Jr. just pulled off a stunning 2025 feat Padres fans can’t overlook

By the end of the year, Tatis graded in the 90th percentile in batting, baserunning, and fielding — a three-lane dominance that only a handful of players have matched since these percentile-tracking metrics started in 2016. It’s the kind of rarefied air that includes names like Bobby Witt Jr., Mookie Betts, José Ramírez, Jarren Duran, and even Jean Segura in 2016.

Padres fans should appreciate the quietness of it. Because “quiet” for Tatis is still a .268/.368/.446 line with an .814 OPS, 25 homers, 89 walks, 111 runs, and a 131 wRC+ across a career-high 155 games. The Padres received nightly value.

The defense might be the clearest reminder. Tatis was an elite right fielder again, picking up his second Platinum Glove, posting 8 Outs Above Average, and pairing that range with a truly mean arm (a 95.5 mph rocket-launcher that lives in the 99th percentile). In a league where teams keep trying to hide defenders and “live with it,” Tatis is the opposite, he’s a run-prevention weapon who changes innings.

And then there’s the baserunning: 32 steals (career-best), real efficiency, and tangible impact beyond raw speed. 

Here’s the only “but,” and it’s a fair one: the slugging was still the lowest of his career. That doesn’t scream decline so much as it screams unfinished — because the underlying ingredients are still there, and the overall package is already absurdly valuable.

This is what San Diego has to build around in 2026: not the myth of Tatis, nor the headline version. The complete version. The one who can carry a game without making it a show. The one who quietly ends up next to the best all-around players on the planet… and makes it look normal.