Fernando Tatis Jr

[rage-STL]

26 yo entering his prime.

8 years/200 million left on contract.

Contributes 6-7 WAR per season.

They can have Burleson, McGreevy, Crooks and Walker

200 mil?

I counted 286 mi and 9 years.

I respect Tatis's great defense, but post roids, he's like an .810 OPS player.

He's young. I think he could be really good for a while. But I don't know if I want to give up the majority of our resources for a left fielder.

But it is interesting.

Tatis will be 27 when the next season starts, and he's probably more of a 5-6 WAR player (small chance he gets to 6.5 or 7+ WAR). He's also a RF not a LF.

He's owed the following by year . . .
2026 - Age 27, $20M
2027 - Age 28, $25M
2028 - Age 29, $25M
2029 - Age 30, $36M
2030 - Age 31, $36M
2031 - Age 32, $36M
2032 - Age 33, $36M
2033 - Age 34, $36M
2034 - Age 35, $36M
Total - 9 years, $286M

I agree with your point, it's a lot to give up for a 27 year old corner OF essentially on a top FA contract (the cheap years are gone). But he's 27 not 29 or 30 like most FAs, he's still a very good hitter (if not elite), and a great defender.

As I said before, you only consider this move if ownership is going to reverse course and spend resources to be good in 2026, or 2027 at the latest. It's very interesting as players like this, at this age, are rarely available, let alone ones already locked up long term.

Adding a young star like F. Tatis makes perfect sense giving C. Bloom two players (JJW) to build around for the next decade (assuming JJW pans out and is extended)!

His full contract can easily be added!

Per fangraphs

Cardinals est. on-the-books payroll:

2027
$38.5M (This includes NADO) + ARBS + Pre-ARBS + Rookies
(ARB 3/4 Donny-Noot-Pallante-King could all be gone via trades and DFA leaving only a few ARB 2's,ARB 1's and Pre's)

2028
$5M (WillyC's buyout) + ARBS + Pre-ARBS + Rookies

2029-------------Virtually nothing!

JJW + Tatis = BUTTS in the seats watching these two!

Add our GG SS Masyn Winn to that list as well; butts in the seats is right.

[alw80]

No

[Whatashame]

Guys like Tatis just don’t come along very often. A right handed hitting OFer who turns 27 in January 2026. Already an all star, already a GG winner. Signed through his year 35 season. A RH hitting athletic OFer. A 5 tool player. We passed on Harper because of money. These 26-27 year old all stars aren’t available every day. He’s going to make 36 million per but I think that we will find just like in Harper, that 36 million in baseball dollars is becoming more and more an acceptable asset.

What we can’t do is make this move and then call it a day. Just say we do move Burleson, Crooks, and McGreevy in this move. Most don’t like Burleson in the outfield and we have Contreras, Herrera and possibly Gorman to play 1B. An outfield with Scott and Tatis in it has the makings of a good defensive outfield. A lineup in 2026 of
C Herrera/Pages
1B Contreras
2B Wetherholt
SS Winn
3B Gorman/Saggese
LF
CF Scott
RF Tatis
DH Herrrera/Walker/Saggese
We don’t know what moving Arenado, Gray, Donovan maybe Contreras will bring back. Moving these 4 plus Burleson should open up considerably more payroll room. Lots of questions still unanswered but the question just isn’t can we afford Tatis.

[Alex Reyes Cy Young]

Guys like Tatis just don’t come along very often. A right handed hitting OFer who turns 27 in January 2026. Already an all star, already a GG winner. Signed through his year 35 season. A RH hitting athletic OFer. A 5 tool player. We passed on Harper because of money. These 26-27 year old all stars aren’t available every day. He’s going to make 36 million per but I think that we will find just like in Harper, that 36 million in baseball dollars is becoming more and more an acceptable asset.

What we can’t do is make this move and then call it a day. Just say we do move Burleson, Crooks, and McGreevy in this move. Most don’t like Burleson in the outfield and we have Contreras, Herrera and possibly Gorman to play 1B. An outfield with Scott and Tatis in it has the makings of a good defensive outfield. A lineup in 2026 of
C Herrera/Pages
1B Contreras
2B Wetherholt
SS Winn
3B Gorman/Saggese
LF
CF Scott
RF Tatis
DH Herrrera/Walker/Saggese
We don’t know what moving Arenado, Gray, Donovan maybe Contreras will bring back. Moving these 4 plus Burleson should open up considerably more payroll room. Lots of questions still unanswered but the question just isn’t can we afford Tatis.

Fiat currency is like ice cubes it melts.

[cardstatman]

Downside:

• Seasons with over 25 HR: 1
• Seasons with over 100 runs: 1
• Seasons with over 80 RBI: 1

He's an awesome player but wow would it hurt if his career ended prematurely. It would be a gutsy risk.

I believe I would do it for Donovan AND Burleson AND Crooks AND McGreevy. These Cardinals are desperate for a star player and RF is our biggest weakness... along with SP recently.

Tatis alone has 13.6 fWAR from RF alone over the past 3 season combined (1708 PA).
St Louis has 1.7 fWAR from RF over the past 3 seasons combined (2003 PA).
That is 1.7 fWAR from Nootbar in 455 PA and 0.0 fWAR from everyone else in 1548 PA.

So we are supposedly looking at 4 more wins per season.

It would be a big boost in a positive direction and much better defensive team.

C Herrera/Pages
1B Contreras
2B Wetherholt
SS Winn
3B Arenado
LF Nootbar
CF Scott
RF Tatis
DH Gorman
Bench Pozo, Fermin, Saggese, Church
SP Gray, Liberatore, Pallante, Mathews, NEW GUY

Then again, if he ages like his father, this would be a disaster.

[Ozziesfan41]

The cardinals don’t get tatis unless they give up JJ and or Doyle and other prospects. People thinking that they would be able to trade some meh to decent players like gray burleson and Donovan for him are wrong

I agree but Gray, Donny, Crooks, a prospect (not JJ or Doyle) and $20 million would help them out a lot. It would be worth trying but I think a lot of other teams could beat that offer.

They announced today that the owner is looking to sell the team so I’m sure shedding a lot of payroll while still being competitive would be a big deal. But again, another team could probably beat that deal.

The padres would never make that deal and would probably laugh at it. They aren’t trading a three time all star star player in his prime who is a fan favorite for an old pitcher who had an ERA over 4 a utility guy with no speed or power a catching prospect who hit under .200 last season and another prospect that isn’t JJ or Doyle. They would laugh bloom off the phone. They will be looking for a package similar to what they gave the nationals for Soto young cost controlled star potential players not meh pitchers and a utility guy and someone will give them those star potential prospects

[JuanAgosto]

They should do it just to add star power to the roster. But to make it worthwhile, they'd need to add at least one more legitimate bat. And there's no way ol Billy writes those checks!