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Padres Make Fernando Tatis Jr. Decision on Opening Day

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Charlie O'Keefe | Last updated Mar 26, 2026 1:48 PM ET

With the arrival of opening day comes lineup announcements, and with lineup announcements comes a glimpse into the manager's potential plans for the year. Which makes it all the more surprising that after all of San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen's spring ruminating on lineup changes, Fernando Tatis Jr. is slated in his usual leadoff spot for Thursday's game against the Tigers.

After a disappointing early postseason exit and a surprise retirement from manager Mike Shildt in 2025, the Padres hired former reliever Craig Stammen to take on the mantle.

Throughout spring training Stammen was noncommittal on how the top of the Padres order would look, putting shortstop Xander Bogaerts in the leadoff spot for a significant number of spring games. Now that opening day has arrived, however, Tatis is back at the top of the order.

Now we go. pic.twitter.com/MQ6VD2mHyl
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 26, 2026

It's a welcome development for Tatis, who batted leadoff in all but five of his games played in 2025. The 27-year-old right fielder hasn't been able to reproduce the offensive numbers he put up in 2021, which made him look like a future MVP.

And while he may not reach the heights of his 2021 .975 OPS again, a full 2025 in the leadoff spot resulted in his most consistent season since then: in 155 games, Tatis slugged 25 home runs, drove in 71 runners, swiped 32 bases, and totaled an .814 OPS en route to an eighth-place finish in National League MVP voting.

While Tatis' 2025 makes his opening day leadoff placement all the more encouraging, it's still too early to tell if he will continue to bat at the top of the order all season long.

San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23)© Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

When asked about the lineup's look going into 2026, Stammen said, "I won't have a set lineup... at least at the beginning, we're going to try new things, try different things, and we'll see what shakes out the best" (h/t AJ Cassavell, MLB.com).

With that in mind, Padres fans should expect to see a variety of lineups in the opening weeks of the season as Stammen seems intent on tinkering with the order. But the opening day lineup shows that Tatis will be part of that rotating cast in the leadoff spot.

Other top candidates to bat out of the leadoff spot are Bogaerts, center fielder Jackson Merrill, and second baseman Jake Cronenworth, though there are sure to be others who bat leadoff occasionally as well.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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