Been thinking about this a lot lately. TA after 2018 was roughly only a .260/.290/.410/.700 hitter with inconsistent defense. He had about 2-2.5 wins per season on avg.

2018 itself was weird because almost all of his value came on defense, and he was personally off because of the death of his best friend, and his offense was way off. It all seemed a little aberrational at the time. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems we stuck with him internally because we had no other immediate SS options. It makes me wonder if Tatis was still in the system, what would have happened. Maybe Tatis would have started 2019 and obviously been the same superstar anywhere, but what would have happened to TA? Would he have been relegated to super sub? Traded? Moved to right field? Relegated to bench player? Languished in AAA?

Hindsight may tell us that TA would have eventually stuck somewhere, but I believe WE stuck with him for (very good) intangible reasons, even as many on this board and fans of the team (myself included) were seriously doubting he was a pro caliber player. Personally, I see the silver lining of the Tatis deal as the realization of TA at his natural position and the cementing of him being a team leader. I seriously wonder if he would have had the chance to ascend to superstardom had Tatis not been dealt.

Tim Anderson would be our SS today.  Full stop.

Anderson made it to the majors ahead of Tatis, not to mention Tatis can't stay healthy anyway.

Plus the underlying assumption is that the Sox would have pushed Tatis to the majors as fast as SD did, and I am not sure about that.

I feel so dirty for wanting Tatis to fail, but I just do. He got his money already which is good. Please let the Padres never win a championship with him.

Edited August 25, 20214 yr by ron883

1 minute ago, ron883 said:

I feel so dirty for wanting Tatis to fail, but I just do. He got his money already which is good. Please let the Padres never win a championship with him.

As long as Preller is employed I hope they rot.

Just now, TheTruth05 said:

As long as Preller is employed I hope they rot.

Agreed. Preller is really who I want to fail. I hope his moves crater their farm system and end horribly. 

11 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Tim Anderson would be our SS today.  Full stop.

Anderson made it to the majors ahead of Tatis, not to mention Tatis can't stay healthy anyway.

Plus the underlying assumption is that the Sox would have pushed Tatis to the majors as fast as SD did, and I am not sure about that.

I think Tatis would have gotten part time playing time by 2019 and his wins per game would have very much convoluted a playing time picture for an organization that does not traditionally do well sorting issues like this out.

14 minutes ago, Greg Hibbard said:

I think Tatis would have gotten part time playing time by 2019 and his wins per game would have very much convoluted a playing time picture for an organization that does not traditionally do well sorting issues like this out.

Sure, but it would have been at 2B or 3B, not SS.

Tatis would be our 2B.  Or maybe 3B and Moncada never moves to 3B (and hopefully in this alternate universe Yoan improved at 2B).

But if Tatis is on this team, the whole complexion of the roster is so different.  Its really not even worth worrying about.  It is what it is.  Sucks to lose a generational talent like that, but the Sox are, and are going to continue to be just fine without him.  

Tatis is at 2B or RF.

Without the Tatis trade, we might not finally pull the trigger on the rebuild.  It's possible that we are in worse shape right now without the Tatis trade.

Isn't Tatis an OF'er now? Should be asking this question about our RF'er.

Presuming Tatis developed exactly the same in the Sox system, he probably would have taken over 2B sometime in 2019 and or worked in RF.  TA was pretty established as the starting SS entering '19 even before he made his massive leap offensively.  Yoan had already been working at 3rd over that winter and I doubt Tatis breaks camp with the big club at that point in the rebuild.

Edited August 25, 20214 yr by Tnetennba

6 minutes ago, Tnetennba said:

Presuming Tatis developed exactly the same in the Sox system, he probably would have taken over 2B sometime in 2019 and or worked in RF.  TA was pretty established as the starting SS entering '19 even before he made his massive leap offensively.  Yoan had already been working at 3rd over that winter and I doubt Tatis breaks camp with the big club at that point in the rebuild.

Not to start the year like the Padres did anyway. Maybe even the year after.

Edit: also, just what this site needs: another Tatis thread!

 

Edited August 25, 20214 yr by manbearpuig

TA would have been fine.  Tatis would be in Birmingham currently if still in the Sox organization.

He would be our catcher and front of the rotation starting pitcher.

1 minute ago, manbearpuig said:

Not to start the year like the Padres did anyway.

Yeah, unless the FO locked him up on a Robert style deal I don't see him on the OD roster in '19 with how they were massaging service time for their young stars at that point in time.  

Sox were developing him at 3rd. They never thought he’d play ss. Who knows? I do believe that an OF of Eloy, Robert, and Tatis would work, tho.

1 minute ago, Timmy U said:

Sox were developing him at 3rd. They never thought he’d play ss. Who knows? I do believe that an OF of Eloy, Robert, and Tatis would work, tho.

Going out on a slight limb saying an OF of a silver slugger, a gold glover (who also rakes), and an MVP candidate would work.

Hard to say anything about it confidently. TA was committing errors at SS at a  disturbing level. Could have gone in the direction of TA changing positions as much as anything else. This current version of him after he worked on his D is probably staying put though.

Can't wait until we get the thread about what the alternate timeline would be for the LF ballboy if Tatis hadn't been traded.

2 minutes ago, Chick Mercedes said:

Hard to say anything about it confidently. TA was committing errors at SS at a  disturbing level. Could have gone in the direction of TA changing positions as much as anything else. This current version of him after he worked on his D is probably staying put though.

Because Tatis didn't commit 18 errors in his first 82 games at SS in SD in 2019?  Heck this year he has 20 errors in 84 games, and is a pretty large negative UZR/150 player at SS.  That is without even touching the LARGE OOZ advantage that TA has at SS.

33 minutes ago, hi8is said:

He would be our catcher and front of the rotation starting pitcher.

He would be both the catcher and pitcher in games that he pitches. Take that Ohtani.

1 minute ago, southsider2k5 said:

Because Tatis didn't commit 18 errors in his first 82 games at SS in SD in 2019?  Heck this year he has 20 errors in 84 games, and is a pretty large negative UZR/150 player at SS.  That is without even touching the LARGE OOZ advantage that TA has at SS.

Anderson wasn’t the same kind of beast at the plate as Tatis though to put the defensive concerns completely aside for a talented youngster like that. If Anderson was the monster at the dish as Tatis to be able to overlook the defense then yeah, it doesn’t go down as an Anderson move.

1 minute ago, Chick Mercedes said:

Anderson wasn’t the same kind of beast at the plate as Tatis though to put the defensive concerns completely aside for a talented youngster like that. If Anderson was the monster at the dish as Tatis to be able to overlook the defense then yeah, it doesn’t go down as an Anderson move.

They would have found a place for him, it just wasn't going to be SS.

Perhaps not, but perhaps anything else can happen as well  given the circumstances. Tend to think he’d come up at 3rd, but it would be a good lively discussion for Hahn and co. Trades  are always a possibility.