The Padres are cautiously optimistic they won’t be without their budding star for more than a few days.

As expected, Fernando Tatis Jr. is not in the lineup for the Padres for Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

“He’s got some soreness,” manager Andy Green said. “We’ll figure out the severity of what that is in the next day or so.”

Tatis was scheduled to undergo an MRI to make sure the preliminary determination that he did not suffer a torn hamstring is accurate. And an apparent good sign is that, barring unexpected bad news, the Padres plan to go forward without making a roster move.


Multiple sources continued to say the expectation is the 20-year-old rookie will be able to play by week’s end.

“We care a lot about him,” Green said. “We think a lot of him. We love the way he’s starting hjis big-league career. We’re going to take care of him. We’re going to put him in good position where he has the shot at health for a long period of time. ... I’d say in the next 24 hours we’ll have a good idea of what that will look like.”

Tatis was walking with less apparent discomfort than Sunday in Washington, where he suffered the injury in the 10th inning when his foot left slipped from under him as stretched to make a catch at second base.

Greg Garcia, who homered Sunday in his second start of the season, played shortstop and led off in Tatis’ place.

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