San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. meets with club general manager, expected to address teammates before end of week, source says

SAN DIEGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. has yet to formally address his San Diego Padres teammates in the wake of his stunning suspension, but Jurickson Profar, one of his closest friends on the team, said he has been speaking with Tatis «every day.»

«He's devastated,» Profar said Thursday when asked about Tatis' state of mind. «He feels really bad.»

Six days earlier, while the Padres were in Washington, D.C., Major League Baseball announced that Tatis had tested positive for the anabolic steroid Clostebol and thus suspended him for 80 games, ending a season that never began.

Tatis, 23, was in the final stages of his recovery from a wrist injury that he likely sustained during an offseason motorcycle accident. Now he's in the process of repairing relationships. That task began on Thursday, with a face-to-face meeting with Padres president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller, a source with knowledge of the situation said. Over the weekend, Tatis is scheduled to meet with Padres chairman Peter Seidler, who signed off on his historic 14-year, $340 million extension in February of 2021.

Tatis is also expected to address his teammates before the end of the week, the source added, but Padres manager Bob Melvin said Thursday that possibility is «still kind of up for debate, if and when that's going to happen.»

Profar has been urging him to, and it sounds as if his peers would welcome it.

«We just wanna hear him be genuine and honest in here,» Padres outfielder Wil Myers said. «What happens in here stays in here. As far as the trust being broken — I think that's obviously true in the respect of what happened, but that's not to say that from a teammate perspective that can't be won back.»

Tatis has faced rampant