Fernando Tatis Jr. Delay Not a Surprise: Sports Doc

Disappointing news came out of San Diego on Tuesday with the CT scan of Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr.'s wrist not showing enough healing. This means no "dry swinging" for the star shortstop and a June return is officially out of the question.

This should come as no surprise. Three months ago at OutKick, we wrote that the timeline for return was a minimum of 4-6 months, and playing in June as the Padres had hoped was never realistic.

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The medical reason for the longer healing timeline is that this was an early December injury that wasn't discovered until March due to MLB's lockout. Because of the delay, the scaphoid surgery undoubtedly consisted of a screw with the addition of bone graft, which means a longer healing time.

Fielding and throwing aren't issues, and Tatis has done both as he travels with the Padres. However, he is a right handed hitter, which puts a lot of stress on his injured lead left wrist.

The silver lining is that in the long term, Tatis will be fine. His scaphoid will heal 100%, just not yet. His season is not over, and he will return to play later this year. And when he does, don't forget about the shoulder.