Padres notes: Keeping Gavin Sheets in lineup, looking for a comfortable Fernando Tatis Jr. up top
Gavin Sheets had only a handful of starts in left field as a big-leaguer before the Padres asked him to make 60 starts there last year.
That's provided a solid foundation now that the Padres are asking Sheets - their primary first baseman this year - to play left field a little more frequently, but the checklist for starts in left field begins with a night-before text to outfield coach David Macias to make sure to have the machine ready to feed him fly balls in early work on game day.
"More and more comfortable with it," Sheets said of moving between first base and left field. "Obviously, played a lot of left field last year, so a lot more comfortable out there. So now I feel like I can make that transition a little bit better, and, you know, kind of honed in on first base and feel a lot better at first base now.
"I'm OK with transitioning back and forth. I think whatever helps the lineup and gets guys in there."
Sheets' bat at the moment is the one the Padres are making sure to keep in the lineup.
The 30-year-old was 10-for-16 with four homers, eight RBIs and an MLB-best 2.177 OPS last week to be named NL Player of the Week. The first of his home runs was a three-run shot with two outs in the ninth inning on Wednesday in Milwaukee, making him the first player in MLB history to have three go-ahead homers with two runners on in the ninth inning in a single season.
Sheets hit in all six games of the road trip and walked seven times as his on-base percentage jumped from .263 at the end of the previous homestand to .340 to start a three-game series against the Dodgers.
Sheets is currently walking in 9.9% of his plate appearances, a tick above his career rate of 8.1%. He had a 36.7% chase rate in April, has cut that to 29% to start May and chased at just an 18.5% clip last week.
"I think that was just the part of things really clicking," Sheets said of the home run in Milwaukee setting him up for a career week. "Had some base hits up the middle, which I think were exciting to me, and then that big home run, but I was really selective of pitches as well. I was proud of the way I walked. Especially in April, I chased a lot, and so getting back to that and just simplifying and seeing the results was great."
Sheets was back at first base on Monday after starting twice in left field on the road trip. With Ramón Laureano slumping, the Padres have given more starts to Sheets in left field of late as a way to get him and some combination of Ty France, Miguel Andujar and Nick Castellanos in the same lineup.
Sheets didn't start a game in left field until April 9 and had just one other start in the outfield before getting three starts in left field in the last seven games.
Back up top
Fernando Tatis Jr. began the season as the leadoff hitter against left-handers. After a three-game look at Jake Cronenworth, Tatis was used as the leadoff hitter again for the first three games in April and then not again until Sunday in Seattle.
Tatis getting a second straight day in the leadoff spot on Monday could be viewed as the latest attempt to get him going. He doesn't have a home run yet this season, but he has more plate appearances there (1,438) than anywhere else in the lineup.
"Feel like you know he’s hit there a lot in his career," Padres manager Craig Stammen said. "He did so in the WBC for Dominican Republic and just trying to get him going a little bit, put him in a comfortable spot that he’s hit in before."
Tatis entered the week hitting .232/.307/.274 and .196/.274/.250 through the first 15 games of May.
The Padres would also love for him to solve the leadoff problem that's weighed down the lineup all year as Padres hitters have a .541 OPS, 30th in the majors and well below the league OPS atop the order (.701).
Notable
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Shohei Ohtani would also hit when he starts Wednesday's series finale. Ohtani had not hit in any of his three previous starts on the mound, an attempt to break him out of a slump. He had a .392 OPS over an 11-game stretch before hitting .471/.571/.882 with one homer in the five games leading up to Monday.
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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 7:41 PM.