Josias Fernandez:
With the first overall selection of the 2016 draft, Tucson selected Josias Fernandez, who leaped right into the major leagues without spending a day in the minors. His numbers weren't great, but then again, for a guy who was only 19 at the start of the year, they weren't really that bad, either. As Fernandez improved over the next several seasons, so did the Diamondbacks. In his first two seasons, they finished in last place, losing 94 and 98 games, respectively. In his third season, they got out of last place, and finished third with a record of 75-87. In his fourth season, Tucson finished in second place and managed to squeak over .500, winning 82 games. In the next two seasons, however, Tucson slumped. Despite Fernandez making his first two All Star games, the Diamondbacks slipped back under .500, and won only 75 and 78 games in 2020 and 2021.
Fernandez left as a free agent and elected to sign with a Nashville team that seemed to be on the rise. After a last place finish in 2019, Nashville had managed to win 82 and 80 games in the two seasons after that. Could the acquisition of Fernandez put them over the top? Yes. As Fernandez ripped 37 homeruns(a career high at the time), Nashville won one of the most exciting pennant races of all time. Interestingly, Fernandez's previous team, Tucson, played an important role in that race. The loss of Fernandez, and other free agents, caused the Diamondbacks to sink to the bottom of the league, losing 108 games. Every other team in the American League took advantage of this. In Tucson's own division, Kansas City, Grand Rapids, and Memphis battled down to the wire, with the Royals beating out the other two by one game, finishing with a record of 82-80. In the Southeast, every team finished over .500, with Nashville winning the division with a record of 89-73. Last place Atlanta won 86 games. Part of the reason that Nashville won out was the fact that they went a whopping 20-3 against the hapless Diamondbacks. No other team dominated Tucson as much. The Predators then swept Kansas City in the ALCS, before falling to Pittsburgh in the World Series.
Nashville cruised to the World Series again in 2023, but fell once more to Pittsburgh. Despite a Silver Slugger season from Fernandez in 2024, Nashville fell in the ALCS to Grand Rapids. And then, in 2025, the Predators won their first World Series in 23 years, pounding the strong pitching of Pittsburgh in a 4 games to 1 victory. In 2026, despite a tremendous postseason effort from Fernandez, Nashville was swept in the World Series by Los Angeles. Fernandez jumped ship after that, and headed to division rival, Atlanta. Despite many strong seasons, Fernandez failed to turn Atlanta into a consistent winner, and after six seasons, he headed to then divisonal power, Knoxville, to finish up his career. The 79ers made the postseason in 2033, but, coincidentally enough, fell to Fernandez's original team, Tucson, in the ALCS.
Throughout his career, Josias Fernandez was a dangerous homerun hitter, consistently belting 30+ roundtrippers per year. At times, he was a capable base-stealing threat, twice reaching 40 steals in a season. His batting average skills came and went, as he had some very good seasons and a lot of more average seasons. At his peak, his contact ability was superb. He combined all of those offensive abilities with perhaps being the greatest defensive left fielder ever. Fernandez was just one of two players to ever win as many as 6 Gold Glove awards in Left Field.
At the time of his retirement, Fernandez ranked 4th all time on the career hit list, tied for 18th in homeruns, 8th in RBI, 1st in triples, 5th in runs scored, and 18th in stolen bases. He remains the all time leader in triples today, and sits 17th in hits and 15th in runs scored. I would imagine that he has a good chance to hold onto that triples record for a long, long time. At the start of the 2082 season, only two players in the top 25 were active, and both are aged players unlikely to hit many more triples- and neither were particularly close to begin with.
Fernandez's stats:
Code:
Career Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Teams
2016 139 443 103 15 7 8 37 68 31 130 21 10 .233 .283 .352 .635 TUC
2017 152 508 150 26 10 13 56 84 34 132 25 15 .295 .339 .463 .802 TUC
2018 150 609 183 19 9 21 88 105 41 108 27 14 .300 .345 .465 .809 TUC
2019 149 610 175 24 13 20 73 112 52 92 23 9 .287 .343 .467 .810 TUC
2020 152 610 207 31 13 29 90 141 64 91 46 18 .339 .402 .575 .977 TUC,AL
2021 153 621 192 30 9 31 109 118 51 69 18 9 .309 .362 .536 .898 TUC,AL
2022 155 586 168 22 6 37 113 105 81 41 45 10 .287 .373 .534 .907 NAS,AL
2023 146 542 153 25 8 18 103 87 67 35 15 12 .282 .361 .458 .819 NAS
2024 152 564 199 29 13 39 129 123 67 41 16 7 .353 .422 .658 1.079 NAS,AL
2025 159 602 182 21 4 32 121 111 72 44 14 16 .302 .377 .510 .887 NAS,AL
2026 154 589 186 29 6 35 116 116 62 31 13 9 .316 .381 .564 .945 NAS,AL
2027 133 519 148 25 5 36 118 97 64 35 7 10 .285 .364 .561 .924 ATL,AL
2028 156 593 184 27 6 25 99 104 64 47 21 14 .310 .377 .503 .880 ATL
2029 106 409 111 17 5 16 74 69 47 27 13 8 .271 .346 .455 .801 ATL
2030 126 504 144 17 8 33 98 84 45 28 9 12 .286 .344 .548 .892 ATL
2031 157 617 177 29 7 37 141 112 54 39 16 14 .287 .344 .536 .881 ATL
2032 137 560 149 25 2 20 90 82 47 48 6 8 .266 .323 .425 .748 ATL
2033 154 602 166 25 12 23 111 115 64 49 15 7 .276 .345 .472 .817 KNO
2034 141 569 146 18 4 14 73 66 28 53 10 4 .257 .291 .376 .668 KNO
2035 60 191 39 7 1 1 6 21 15 29 0 0 .204 .262 .267 .529 KNO
Total 2831 10848 3162 461 148 488 1845 1920 1050 1169 360 206 .291 .354 .496 .850
Career Postseason Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2022 8 29 9 0 1 1 3 5 7 1 1 1 .310 .444 .483 .927
2023 11 42 11 2 1 3 8 9 5 4 0 0 .262 .340 .571 .912
2024 7 30 8 1 0 0 3 2 1 2 0 1 .267 .290 .300 .590
2025 11 45 9 2 2 1 4 6 5 6 1 1 .200 .280 .400 .680
2026 9 35 16 2 0 2 7 5 4 2 0 1 .457 .513 .686 1.199
2033 6 29 6 0 0 0 1 3 0 2 0 0 .207 .207 .207 .414
Total 52 210 59 7 4 7 26 30 22 17 2 4 .281 .349 .452 .802
Player History
Drafted in 1st round, 1st overall pick, by Tucson in 2016...
Had first career hit (double) on 4/10/2016, off Tomas Sanchez (ATL)...
Hit first career homerun on 5/20/2016, off Jason Bogart (WAS)...
Had 5 hits with 0 RBI against Grand Rapids on 8/5/2016...
Drove in 6 runs against Knoxville on 7/9/2018...
Won Gold Glove Award at Leftfield in 2019...
Drove in 6 runs against Knoxville on 5/14/2020...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/2/2020, hitting .417 with 1 HR, 5 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/23/2020, hitting .481 with 1 HR, 4 RBI...
Was selected to the 2020 Allstar game...
Had 5 hits with 1 RBI against Grand Rapids on 9/27/2020...
Won Batter of the Month award on 10/1/2020, hitting .390 with 5 HR, 17 RBI...
Was selected to the 2021 Allstar game...
Had 5 hits with 2 RBI against Knoxville on 7/11/2021...
Drove in 8 runs against Washington on 7/13/2021...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/14/2021, hitting .483 with 3 HR, 12 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Nashville on 8/11/2021...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/18/2021, hitting .379 with 5 HR, 14 RBI...
Signed as a free agent by Nashville on 2/5/2022 to a 5-year deal worth $10,165,600 per year...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/19/2022, hitting .556 with 2 HR, 8 RBI...
Was selected to the 2022 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/29/2023, hitting .440 with 2 HR, 14 RBI...
Won Gold Glove Award at Leftfield in 2023...
Hit for the cycle against Kansas City on 5/20/2024...
Had 5 hits with 3 RBI against Kansas City on 5/20/2024...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/26/2024, hitting .500 with 2 HR, 8 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 6/1/2024, hitting .398 with 8 HR, 31 RBI...
Was selected to the 2024 Allstar game...
Hit 3 homeruns against Tucson, driving in 8 runs on 7/5/2024...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/22/2024, hitting .478 with 4 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2024, hitting .353 with 39 HR, 129 RBI...
Won Gold Glove Award at Leftfield in 2024...
Was selected to the 2025 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/14/2025, hitting .423 with 2 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/8/2025, hitting .609 with 3 HR, 8 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 10/1/2025, hitting .383 with 9 HR, 23 RBI...
Won World Series with Nashville in 2025...
Hit 3 homeruns against Tucson, driving in 5 runs on 4/10/2026...
Drove in 6 runs against Tucson on 6/9/2026...
Was selected to the 2026 Allstar game...
Drove in 6 runs against Kansas City on 8/30/2026...
Drove in 7 runs against Washington on 9/7/2026...
Won Gold Glove Award at Leftfield in 2026...
Signed as a free agent by Atlanta on 2/16/2027 to a 6-year deal worth $13,444,000 per year...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/26/2027, hitting .370 with 4 HR, 7 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 6/1/2027, hitting .291 with 12 HR, 29 RBI...
Was selected to the 2027 Allstar game...
Had 2000th career hit on 7/11/2027, off Clarence Webb (TUC)...
Injured on 8/27/2027 with a Torn Hip Muscle, out for 4 weeks...
Injured on 5/19/2029 with a Broken Finger, out for 5 weeks...
Injured on 8/7/2029 with a Inflamed Hamstring Muscle, out for 3-4 weeks...
Injured on 9/16/2030 with a Inflamed Thigh Muscle, out for 1-2 weeks...
Hit for the cycle against Kansas City on 8/11/2031...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/18/2031, hitting .481 with 1 HR, 13 RBI...
Drove in 7 runs against Nashville on 9/7/2031...
Won Gold Glove Award at Leftfield in 2031...
Won Gold Glove Award at Leftfield in 2032...
Signed as a free agent by Knoxville on 2/2/2033 to a 3-year deal worth $4,465,500 per year...
Won Batter of the Month award on 7/1/2033, hitting .336 with 9 HR, 32 RBI...
Had 3000th career hit on 4/18/2034, off Jesus Marquez (GR)...
Had 5 hits with 5 RBI against Atlanta on 4/27/2034...
Injured on 5/13/2034 with a Sore Back, out for one week...
Released by Knoxville on 6/20/2035, refused assignment to minors...
Retired and inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2036.
Batting Leader Boards Appearances
AVG
2020 - .339 - 4th
2024 - .353 - 2nd
OBP
2020 - .402 - 8th
2024 - .422 - 3rd
SLG
2020 - .575 - 6th
2021 - .536 - 7th
2022 - .534 - 8th
2024 - .658 - 1st
2026 - .564 - 9th
2027 - .561 - 7th
OPS
2020 - .977 - 6th
2022 - .907 - 7th
2024 - 1.079 - 2nd
2026 - .945 - 8th
2027 - .924 - 9th
Hits
2020 - 207 - 2nd
2021 - 192 - 4th
2024 - 199 - 4th
2025 - 182 - 8th
2026 - 186 - 9th
Triples
2016 - 7 - 7th
2017 - 10 - 3rd
2018 - 9 - 3rd
2019 - 13 - 1st
2020 - 13 - 1st
2021 - 9 - 7th
2022 - 6 - 9th
2023 - 8 - 2nd
2024 - 13 - 1st
2030 - 8 - 8th
2033 - 12 - 2nd
Homeruns
2021 - 31 - 9th
2022 - 37 - 3rd
2024 - 39 - 2nd
2025 - 32 - 5th
2026 - 35 - 6th
2027 - 36 - 7th
2031 - 37 - 7th
RBI
2021 - 109 - 9th
2022 - 113 - 4th
2023 - 103 - 5th
2024 - 129 - 3rd
2025 - 121 - 4th
2027 - 118 - 9th
2031 - 141 - 2nd
Runs
2019 - 112 - 10th
2020 - 141 - 1st
2021 - 118 - 5th
2022 - 105 - 7th
2024 - 123 - 2nd
2025 - 111 - 7th
2026 - 116 - 8th
BB
2022 - 81 - 7th
SB
2016 - 21 - 8th
2017 - 25 - 6th
2018 - 27 - 6th
2020 - 46 - 4th
2022 - 45 - 3rd