Tatis lands on injured list with stress reaction in leg

SAN DIEGO — The Padres will be without star right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. potentially through the All-Star break, after Tatis was recently diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right leg. San Diego placed Tatis on the IL on Monday after he’d been out of the lineup the past two games.

Tatis recently acknowledged that he had been playing with tightness in his right quad area for much of the season. Recent imaging revealed a stress reaction in his right femur. It hasn’t limited Tatis’ performance at the plate, as he has turned in an All-Star-caliber campaign, hitting .279 with an .821 OPS — including a 1.062 mark in June.

But recently, the injury has plainly impacted Tatis’ ability to run the bases and cover ground in the outfield. It mostly ails him during his deceleration, manager Mike Shildt said. There’s no specific moment Tatis could point to for the origin of the injury, Shildt added. Tatis has not been made available since he exited Friday’s game against Milwaukee.

“He could still play — because he’s been playing with it,” Shildt said. “But it’s something that is not going to get better unless we rest it.”

Shildt didn’t explicitly say the injury would keep Tatis out until the second half. But he noted the benefits of the upcoming schedule. Beginning Thursday, San Diego has four days off in a 15-day span, followed by four more days off for the All-Star break.

“We’re going to take some time, let him heal,” Shildt said. “He’s a young, great athlete. We’d anticipate for him to heal quicker. But we don’t have a timetable on it.”

Tatis’ placement on the IL was part of a major flurry of moves for the Padres on Monday — including news that Yu Darvish would not return to make his start on Tuesday as originally planned. Darvish, Shildt revealed, is dealing with “a little inflammation in his [right] elbow.” Darvish is still being evaluated, but Shildt added: “Do we think it’s serious? We don’t.”

Darvish has missed the past four weeks with a left groin strain and spent time earlier in the season on the IL with a neck issue. In his place, the Padres recalled right-hander Adam Mazur, who had been previously filling Darvish’s spot in the rotation. They demoted righty Jhony Brito with the intent of building him up toward a starter’s workload at Triple-A El Paso.

Taking Tatis’ place on the roster is switch-hitting outfielder Bryce Johnson, who batted ninth and played right field for Monday’s series opener against the Nationals. The lefty-hitting David Peralta seems likeliest to slot into Tatis’ spot on most nights. But Shildt noted that both Johnson and Tyler Wade would receive starts.

“The show goes on,” Shildt said. “We’ve got to figure out how to continue to move this mission forward. … We’re going to get contributions from a lot of different people, and we’ve got to continue to find ways to shake hands at the end of games.”

That’s the important part. The Padres sit at .500, clinging to the final Wild Card spot in the National League, ahead of their series against the Nationals, who are fellow Wild Card contenders. Already, San Diego has Xander Bogaerts (left shoulder fracture), Luis Campusano (left thumb bruise), Joe Musgrove (right elbow inflammation) and Darvish on the IL.

On Monday, they added Tatis to that list. Meanwhile, Jurickson Profar (left knee patellar tendinitis) and Manny Machado (right hip flexor strain) have played through injuries recently. From that entire group of players, the Padres haven’t ruled anyone out for the season. It’s possible that the majority of those players return and make major contributions down the stretch. But the current state of the playoff race means the Padres must find a way to withstand their absence.

“No one’s going to feel sorry for us,” Shildt said. “We’ve got to buckle down and figure out how we’re going to compete to win baseball games. We’re going to do that.”