Padres GM A.J. Preller says Fernando Tatis Jr. is starting his swing progression today

The San Diego Padres haven’t been totally truthful about what has been going on with Fernando Tatis Jr., who hasn’t played a game this season due to a wrist injury. Weeks ago we found out that Tatis was swinging a bat because a fan put out a video on social media. The Padres didn’t tell the media he was going to be doing that.

Today though, San Diego’s general manager A.J. Preller told Ben & Woods that the 23-year-old will begin his swing progression today at Petco Park. “Tatis will begin his hitting progression today so he’s been doing some more physical activity and more defensive work over the last couple weeks”.

It seems like Tatis will be progressing from dry swings to playing in games over the course of the next three to four weeks. “We’ll go week to week and start to increase swings and volume and obviously progress into games,” Preller said on 97.3 The Fan this morning.

If he were to return in three weeks, it would set him up to make his season debut August 5 at Dodger Stadium against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“We’ve mapped out what the next three to four weeks looks like...it’s gonna be a week to week thing at this point kind of seeing how he handles things from a conditioning standpoint and just getting back into baseball shape so we’ve got a program over the next three to four weeks. He’ll kind of dictate it by how he’s feeling...”

Tatis obviously is a huge part of the Padres organization so Preller said they’re not going to try to rush him back. “He hasn’t had a spring training so we’re gonna be cognizant of that and obviously how his wrist responds to everything...each week we’ll know more here as we get going to get him back on the field at Petco.”