Stat Stories: Jayce Tingler’s experience reconstructing Ian Desmond may be prescient for Tatis Jr.’s future

Nearly every day before the 2016 MLB season, Jayce Tingler would walk to the outfield at the old Globe Life Park and hit fly balls to an $8-million shortstop.

Yes, you read that right.

It was part of a promise Tingler made in spring training that year. A promise to Ian Desmond that he would do everything he could to convert the seven-year cornerstone middle infielder with the Nationals into an everyday outfielder with the Rangers.

As part of his responsibilities as the outfield coach in Texas, it was on Tingler to hedge the Rangers’ bet they could turn Desmond’s athletic build into a piece that could fill a void in the outfield. Even if that sometimes meant three workouts a day.

“I said (to Tingler), ‘I want to take a serious run at it. I want to work as hard as I can. I want you to push me and I’ll push you.’ He agreed to it,” Desmond, a former All-Star infielder, said in 2016 to MLB.com.

And if any part of this story is starting to sound familiar, it should.

Fast forward five years and Tingler may have a similar reconstruction project on his hands. Only this time, it’s not with a $8-million man but a $330-million one.

Fernando Tatis Jr., who has been on the IL since dislocating his shoulder July 30 for at least the fifth time this year, is potentially transitioning to the outfield upon his return. It’s a move that could preserve his shoulder and prevent season-ending surgery.

For the last handful of days, Tatis has been working out with outfield coach Wayne Kirby before games. Tingler, now the manager of the Padres, is overseeing the process just as Texas’ Jeff Banister did for him in 2016.

“He has got the unique ability to play a lot of different places just because of his athletic ability,” Tingler said of what he has seen from Tatis before games. “Honestly, what he is able to do whether it is power-shagging or just messing around in the outfield, he is an explosive athlete with a high baseball IQ.

“It is still too early to say (whether he will play out there). We would have to have a lot of discussions.”

That rhetoric also sounds familiar to Desmond and Tingler’s process. At first, the Rangers were noncommittal about moving him out of the infield. Then they transitioned him to left field. By May, he was the full-time center fielder.

And if the Desmond and Tingler process has any foreboding effect in 2021, it might be worth taking a look at how the process turned out.

Desmond was an All-Star that season for the Rangers. After starting over 900 games at short, Desmond turned into statistically one of the better center fielders in baseball in 2016.

His Ultimate Zone Rating, a stat that measures how a player makes plays in comparison with other fielders at the same position, rated him the fourth-best center fielder in MLB by the All-Star break.

He finished the year with a .971 fielding percentage in center. He had only one throwing error and was worth 2.2 Wins Above Replacement in 1,109 innings.

It allowed the Rangers to demote longtime center fielder Delino DeShields as Desmond won the job. More importantly, it kept Desmond’s bat in the lineup on an everyday basis. He slashed .285/.335/.446 with 22 home runs for Rangers as they won the AL West.

“I couldn’t be happier with how (it) worked out,” Jon Daniels, the former Rangers general manager and former boss of current Padres GM A.J. Preller, said at the time.

That blueprint is what the Padres would find the most ideal for Tatis in the final two months of the regular season. Any solution that could make him a productive outfielder, save his shoulder and keep his bat in the lineup is something they would hear out.

Tatis is slashing .292/.373/.651. His OPS of 1.024 leads the majors. He has a 4.9 WAR (the next closest on the team is Manny Machado at 3.9). His bat could be the difference between just making the playoffs or making a deep run into October.

“We will see what is best for the team,” Tatis said of potentially moving to the outfield. “People have been mentioning that (moving to the outfield would save my shoulder). But let’s see what happens.”

Bobby Dickerson, the infield coach for the Padres, thinks it can be done.

“A talented player can (make the transition),” Dickerson said.

Other players have gone from the infield to the outfield. It’s not common, but it’s not rare either.

Juan Lagares of the Angles made the move. Kolten Wong played outfield for a bit for the Cardinals.

But, for the purposes of this situation, Desmond is the most salient case study because of his history with Tingler and Rangers.

With Tatis, we will have to see if history repeats itself.