A judge ruled on Friday that San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. owes investment firm Big League Advance (BLA) Fund almost $4 million. Tatis had stopped making payments to BLA in 2024, claiming the contract he had with the firm was predatory.
At the age of 18, Fernando Tatis Jr. signed a futures earnings contract with BLA. Under the terms of the contract, the investment firm paid him $2 million in exchange for 10% of his future MLB earnings.
Tatis filed a lawsuit against BLA in June of last year, alleging that the future earnings contract was predatory. He said he was suing “to help protect those young players who don’t yet know how to protect themselves from these predatory lenders and illegal financial schemes.” In September of 2025, an arbitrator ruled that BLA was entitled to nearly $3.74 million.
Fernando Tatis Jr. lost the case because of a legal snafu
Tatis filed a petition in San Diego County Circuit Court the following month, arguing that the California Financing Law (CFL) should be used to void the agreement with BLA. However, Tatis filed his petition too late, according to the judge.
Because Tatis chose to participate in arbitration to resolve the dispute over his BLA contract, the judge found that he waived his legal CFL challenges to the agreement. The judge stressed that he had to bring up those issues “before arbitration proceedings began.”
“Tatis was required to raise his CFL challenges to the Player Agreement before arbitration proceedings began and has therefore waived judicial review of such challenges,” the judge wrote.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that his attorney, Maurice Mitts, plans to appeal the judge’s decision. Should the decision stand, BLA stands to make $34 million from the 14-year, $340 million deal Fernando Tatis Jr. signed with the Padres in 2021.
“The court made significant findings against BLA, and the only thing they prevailed on was timeliness of the challenge,” Mitts told Front Office Sports. “That is something which we are very likely to appeal, and we feel strongly we have a very good chance.”