Andy’s Address, 3/25

Andy addresses Fernando Tatis Jr.’s improvement, Francisco Mejía and other catchers and three starting pitchers

The Padres are playing their penultimate preseason exhibition Monday night in Seattle and 20-year-old shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. is in the starting lineup.

Padres manager Andy Green discussed Tatis Jr.’s spring during his pre-game media session.

“Tatis is a special talent,” said Green. “He is very athletic. You see that very quickly when you see him run the bases. There’s real power there. It comes out in bursts at time where you are kind of blown away by it. And there are times where it is just hustle beating other teams. That’s been really positive.

“The improvement on the defensive side has been the best thing for me. Where he was last year in spring training to where he is now ... if he takes one more leap like that he has a chance to be one of the absolute best in the game at that position.”

Green discussed his catchers and went into more detail on rookie switch-hitter Francisco Mejía.

“We’ve seen an awful lot of good things from our catchers,” said Green. “Austin Hedges has done what he’s always done. And he’s swung the bat well, too. Mejía has driven in runs left and right and has dramatically improved his receiving. And Chris Stewart has been exactly as advertised.

“Mejía has a feel for the barrel and the ability to manipulate the bat and get to any pitch in any zone. He can even get to pitches not in the strike zone at times. The ability to do that sets him up to chase more than most people, but he’s worked hard trying to refine that.”

Green discussed the continuing roster discussions:

“We’ve had a number of conversations with guys and let some know they are going to be on the roster,” said the manager. “It’s not prudent to talk about the people we’ve talked to. We expect to get through every conversation by tomorrow. We’re not going to dive into specifics about catchers, outfielders, infielders and pitchers right now.”

Green discussed Chris Paddack, who is starting Monday night in Seattle and Logan Allen and Cal Quantrill, who had a rough shared start Sunday in the spring finale in Arizona.

“Three innings is probably the max for Paddack tonight,” said Green. “We just want to see him attack the same way he has pitched all spring training. He’s been really good all spring. He has a really good minor league track record. We loved what we’ve seen this spring. He’s well rounded. The way he’s wired is a plus for him. His stuff plays. It’s real stuff. And his focus is as good as any young pitcher you’re going to come across.”

“It was not a good day for either one of them,” Green said of Logan Allen and Quantrill. “Cal was marginally better. He still didn’t pick his teammate up very well after an error and some of the hits were of the cheaper variety, but they were still hits. That was a day they will both learn from and grow from. That’s probably the biggest thing.”