Nationals’ News: It’s Taylor Time!
As Opening Day creeps closer, Major League teams have some big decisions to make in regards to their top prospects. For the Washington Nationals, an injury helped to make the decision a lot easier.
When Nationals’ centerfielder and leadoff man Denard Span went down with an injury, it opened the door for their top offensive prospect to make the 25-man roster. Michael Taylor, who had a sensational season in Double-A last year, should make the Nats’ Opening Day roster and be starting in centerfield against the Mets on April 6th.
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Taylor is coming off his debut season at Double-A, where he won the Eastern League Rookie of the Year Award for Harrisburg. He slashed .313/.396/.539 en route to a 20/20 season behind 22 home runs and 34 stolen bases before being promoted to Syracuse. Now, he is amid a hot spring that could provide the Nationals with big question marks down the road.
The 23-year old, 2009 6th round pick is coming off a big Sunday. He homered off Detroit Tigers’ one-time ace Justin Verlander not once, but twice. He is currently hitting .324 on 12 hits in 37 at bats. Seven of those hits have been for extra bases (two doubles, two triples, three home runs) and he has scored nine runs. He appears to be causing the same havoc on the base paths that Span has become known for doing.
The problem is that Taylor has walked once this spring. The Nationals need his speed on base, and an 11:1 strikeout to walk ratio isn’t going to help that. Now, it is only spring training, but this seems to be the case for a long time. Taylor has a career .335 on base percentage. He has struck out 120 times or more in three of his five professional seasons while never walking more than 60 times in a season. That’s not quite the production a team wants from their leadoff hitter, especially when someone like Span hasn’t struck out 80 times in a season since 2009.
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That doesn’t mean Taylor won’t get his chance, nor does it mean he will not succeed. In fact, should he come out strong in April the Nationals will have a big question on their hands. Do they send Taylor back down for everyday at bats to hone his plate discipline or do they keep him up on the big league level as the fourth outfielder, limiting his playing time?
With Bryce Harper and Jayson Werth both known for missing time, Taylor would be a valuable asset off the bench and could see pretty regular playing time. However, not seeing everyday at bats could lead to a digression instead of the advancements the Nats need from their budding star.
Fortunately, this isn’t a question that the Nationals need to address at the moment. All signs point to Taylor being the starting center fielder and they can see how he responds for at least a month until Span returns. Once he does, they will surely have some big decisions to address.