SAN DIEGO — On an otherwise sleepy February morning early in spring training 2021, the San Diego Padres jolted the baseball world by announcing that they had struck a 14-year, $340 million deal with their young superstar shortstop, Fernando Tatis Jr. He was just 22 at the time, and the contract was — and remains — the longest in Major League Baseball history.
But when the Padres open the postseason against the Mets on Friday in Queens, Tatis, the franchise player who should be leading them, will be nowhere in sight. A series of bad decisions has wrecked his summer, hampered his team and thrown the future of a man who once was among the game’s most magnetic players into serious question.