A San Diego Superior Court has ruled that Fernando Tatís Jr.'s 2017 agreement with Big League Advance Fund remains valid, leaving the Padres star on the hook for millions more under a deal he tried to unwind. The ruling, finalized at a hearing on May 22, ends his bid to erase the contract.
Under a May 2025 arbitrator's decision, Tatis was already ordered to pay the fund the $3.2 million he owed when he filed suit, plus $240,515 in attorney's fees. The court's decision means that award stands. For Tatis, it also locks in a fight over a contract he signed as an 18-year-old prospect in exchange for a $2 million upfront payment and 10 percent of future earnings.
He signed that agreement in 2017, long before his career reached the scale that followed. In 2021, Tatis signed a 14-year, $340 million contract with the San Diego Padres, turning the once-obscure deal into a far more expensive obligation. His lawsuit, filed in June 2025, argued that Big League Advance Fund preyed on him when he was a teenager in the Dominican Republic and that the arrangement amounted to one of the predatory lending schemes he said young players need protection from.
Tatis framed the case as something larger than his own finances. He said he was fighting the battle not just for himself but for other young players still chasing a dream and hoping to support their families. He also said he wanted to protect players who do not yet know how to defend themselves from predatory lenders and illegal financial schemes, arguing that baseball should be about the game rather than shady businesses driven by profit and greed.
But the court did not accept that framing. The ruling leaves the contract in place and, with it, the obligation that followed once Tatis became one of baseball's highest-paid players. What remains unresolved is whether he will keep pressing the case any further after the court closed the door on his attempt to unwind the agreement.
