Padres Cancel Fernando Tatis Jr. Bobblehead Giveaway

The San Diego Padres are already making moves to lessen the public relations impact of star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr.'s suspension for PEDs. On Tuesday the team announced a planned Tatis bobblehead giveaway set for September 7 has been cancelled.

In place of the Tatis bobblehead, the Padres will give fans a Juan Soto City Connect shirsey. Which seems like a solid tradeoff given the circumstances.

Soto has rapidly become a fan favorite after San Diego acquired him in a massive trade two weeks ago. In 12 games since arriving, the 23-year-old outfielder is hitting .326 with a ridiculous on-base percentage of .463 and an OPS of .975. He only has one home run and three RBIs, but the rest of the lineup is benefitting greatly from his presence. Manny Machado in particular has been on fire. Machado was named NL Player of the Week last week when he hit .429 with two home runs and an OPS of 1.270 in six games.

Tatis is set to meet with Padres executives later this week and will meet with his teammates as well. Those meetings could go a long way towards restoring trust between the organization and its star player, and his credibility around MLB.