What Is Happening with Fernando Tatis Jr.?
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno, Jed, and DVR dig into the early-season struggles of Fernando Tatis Jr., examining what’s gone wrong at the plate and how he can get back on track. They also take a look at the scorching start from Matt Olson and debate whether his trajectory points toward Cooperstown. Later, they break down Framber Valdez drilling Trevor Story, which led to Valdez’s ejection on Tuesday night.
Rundown:
2:40 Fernando Tatis Jr.’s Hitting Woes
13:56 Tatis Jr.’s Projection for Rest of Season
23:58 Expectations for Jackson Merrill
30:25 Matt Olson’s Hot Start
40:05 Ozzie Albies’ Career Year?
44:18 What’s Wrong with Austin Riley?
49:20 Framber Valdez Ejected
57:09 Carlos Correa Out for Season
59:14 Other News & Notes
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Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
With: Jed Lowrie
Editor: Jason Potere
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today, on Rates and Barrels, we'll tell you what this white box means for Fernando Tatis Jr. |
| 0:06.6 | Plus, we have a new leader atop the war leaderboard. |
| 0:09.4 | Matt Olson has been red hot to begin 2026, and he might actually have a foundation for a Hall of Fame case. |
| 0:16.5 | Let's go. |
| 0:16.9 | Let's go. |
| 0:28.1 | Welcome to rates and barrels. |
| 0:29.8 | It's Wednesday, May 6th. |
| 0:39.2 | Derek Van Riper, you know Sarah, is Jed Lorry here, digging into some big questions around baseball, including one that has been swirling through the discord for the better part of the last two weeks. |
| 0:41.7 | What is happening with Fernando Tatis Jr.? |
| 0:46.4 | Jed, how's it going for you on this Wednesday? |
| 0:48.9 | I'm doing great, guys. |
| 0:50.0 | Happy to be back. |
| 0:50.9 | Long week of travel to go to the Mexico City series, see |
| 0:56.0 | Fernando play, and then got to go to New York and went on MLB Network and had a little |
| 1:02.9 | fun in New York. So good to be back. All over the place. Well-traveled Jed Lowry once again. |
| 1:09.0 | You know, how's it going for you on this Wednesday? It's good. My wife just left town. So it's me and the boys for six days. But I don't, I don't, it's going to be hectic. It's going to be hectic. And I'm usually the cook, but I think if I'm everything, I think that's what's going to go out. I think they're not going to get |
| 1:27.9 | some home-cooked meals, maybe one. It's going to be some carryout. But also, real proud of my |
| 1:34.3 | youngest, he went out and he pitched badly in the first inning yesterday in a playoff game. And then |
| 1:39.7 | he went three for four with a triple and got one of the game balls and uh they had to come from behind |
| 1:45.1 | victory and so they're still on the winner side of the bracket and got a big game tomorrow night so |
| 1:50.5 | uh real proud of him for just like you know like you could he could have just wallowed you and he got |
| 1:55.7 | taken out of the game he didn't even get an out you know and it was a bunch of walks and he could |
... |
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