Fernando Tatis Jr. appears to be headed to the big leagues.
The Padres will include Tatis on their Opening Day roster, Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported Tuesday. MLB Pipeline ranks Tatis as the team's No. 1 prospect and the No. 2 overall prospect in the major leagues.
Source: Fernando Tatis Jr. will be on the Padres’ Opening Day roster. If any GM was going to do something like this, A.J. Preller seemed like the one.
— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) March 27, 2019
Lin's report comes one day after the Padres informed pitching prospect Chris Paddack that he will make the team's Opening Day roster. Paddack is scheduled to make his major league debut Sunday vs. the Giants.
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San Diego is passing up an opportunity to manipulate the service time of Tatis and Paddack — and thus gain an extra year of team control — by having them in the majors immediately rather than keeping them in the minor leagues for at least the first 12 days of the season.
Tatis and Paddack were among the notable service-time debates in baseball this spring. The White Sox were planning on sending down top prospect Eloy Jimenez before ultimately signing him to a six-year, $43 million contract and adding him to their Opening Day roster. Blue Jays prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s roster status was a topic of discussion, too, but he suffered an oblique strain in spring training, which made the team's decision to start him in the minor leagues an easy one.
Tatis, who turned 20 in January, batted .286/.355/.507 with 16 home runs in 88 games in Double-A last season. The son of former major leaguer Fernando Tatis will likely be the Padres' everyday shortstop, meaning he will be on the same side of the infield as new third baseman Manny Machado.