The San Diego Padres advanced to the National League Championship Series over the weekend, extending an October run that has seen them knock off the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres will now square off against the Philadelphia Phillies beginning on Tuesday with a trip to the World Series hanging in the balance.
While the Padres shouldn't need extra motivation to do their best heading into the NLCS, they nevertheless do have additional incentive to play as many postseason games as possible. That's because every contest the Padres play in counts toward the 80-game suspension imposed upon star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. back in August after he failed a performance-enhancing drug test.
The terms of Tatis' suspension barred him from playing in the Padres' final 48 regular-season games this campaign, as well as any and all postseason contests. Despite being ineligible to partake in October's games, Tatis is still receiving credit for time served. As the Joint Drug Agreement notes: "a 'game' shall include all championship season games and post-season games in which the Player would have been eligible to play, but shall not include Spring Training games, extended Spring Training games, Arizona Fall League games, or affiliated Winter League games."
Tatis was supposed to miss the Padres' first 32 regular-season games next season. With San Diego assured of playing in at least 11 playoff games (and perhaps even more), Tatis will now miss a maximum of 21 regular season games in 2023. As Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune noted last week, Tatis' return date had already moved from May into April. If the Padres were to play seven-game sets in both the LCS and World Series rounds, Tatis would then be eligible to return after their 11th game of the season, or as early as April 11.
In other words, the Padres winning the NLCS (and the World Series) would be a win-win situation: for them, and for their star shortstop.
