SAN DIEGO -- Less than a month into his first season as Padres manager, Craig Stammen has made two things abundantly clear: He’s going to give his regular starters consistent off-days -- yes, even the superstars. And he’s going to use his bench. Heavily.
On Wednesday, it was Fernando Tatis Jr.'s turn to receive a scheduled off-day. Tatis was out of the lineup for the second game of San Diego’s three-game series against Seattle at Petco Park. He’s the last of the Padres’ regulars to receive a day off early this season, as Stammen continues to rotate his bench pieces into the lineup regularly.
Nick Castellanos got the start in right field in Tatis’ place.
“I know that playing 162 games is a hard thing to do,” Stammen said. “There’s not that many guys that can do it -- and also sustain the level of production that we want out of these guys … for a full season.”
Tatis had started all 17 games of the season, slashing .242/.316/.303 entering play Wednesday. He’s yet to hit his first home run of 2026, but he’d recently begun to heat up at the plate, with six hits and a walk across the past three games.
On Saturday, Tatis made a surprise start at second base, then started there again on Sunday. Of course, that was also part of Stammen’s plan to play the long game with his regulars.
For now at least, Tatis is serving as the Padres’ backup second baseman. He started one game there in place of Jake Cronenworth and another game when Cronenworth slid to shortstop with Xander Bogaerts getting a day off.
Through it all, the Padres have gotten major contributions from their bench, as they’ve reeled off six straight wins and nine of 10 entering play Wednesday.
“Obviously it makes it a lot easier to give days off to some of our everyday players, because the bench players are playing so well, and we feel good about their at-bats,” Stammen said. “I think when they play more often, their at-bats are probably a little bit better, too.”