San Diego is hoping it managed to avoid some more injury misfortune with shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. on Tuesday.

The superstar shortstop exited the Padres' 4-3 loss to the Cubs for what the team said was "precautionary reasons" due to right oblique tightness. Tatis was taken out after batting in the top of the sixth and was replaced at shortstop by Ha-Seong Kim in the bottom of the frame.

"He was a little tight around the midsection, abdominal-section, and so [taking him out was] more precautionary than anything," Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. "Trainers went and took a look at him. Strength is pretty good postgame, range of motion [is] pretty good. We'll kind of go day to day. Hopefully it's just a little bit of tightness in the midsection, and it'll kind of go from there."

Tatis flied out to left field in the top of the sixth. Nothing appeared to be wrong immediately, but Tingler said he believed the oblique tightened up a bit on one of Tatis' swings. Tatis alerted San Diego's trainers to the tightness after he came off the field, and though he said he could go back out for the bottom of the inning, the Padres decided to remove him.

Another injury on the roster is something San Diego can ill afford at the moment. With 10 players on the 60-day IL and four more on the 10-day IL as of Tuesday, the Padres' roster is already thin. Tatis himself has had two stints on the injured list the season, the first because of a shoulder ailment and the second due to COVID-19.

Tingler was encouraged by the report he got from the training staff after the game that Tatis may not need to spend more time on the IL, but it remains to be seen how long an absence Tatis may face.

"I think it's too early to tell, but just seeing Fernando and the trainers, I am pretty optimistic, for sure," Tingler said. "Just with seeing their reaction postgame and seeing the range of motion and talk about the test they did, I am optimistic that maybe we caught something early, before it got bad. Sometimes you wake up, things are different, but I am fairly optimistic with the trainer's report and how Fernando was feeling after the game."