Article: Painful Patience: Brewers Need to Keep Giving Tyrone Taylor a Chance to Work Out of This

[Matthew Trueblood]

At the outset of spring training, Tyrone Taylor was penciled in as a regular in the Brewers outfield. After missing substantial time with an injury to his elbow, though, he watched a few players surpass him on the depth chart, and since his return, his numbers have been atrocious. Still, the Brewers need to be patient.

Image courtesy of © Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

This is a deeply trying time on the baseball calendar, for fans and for teams. The sample represented by the season to date begins to feel robust, and even if it's ultimately insufficient to make good decisions, the sheer bulk of the season that has been played begins to enforce a sense of building urgency. From late May through early June, fans start pleading for big shakeups, and sometimes, teams even give it to them. It's around this time that managers are sometimes fired (see Joe Maddon and Joe Girardi, last year). It's around this time that clubs cut bait on bad investments of money or playing time.

For the Brewers, Tyrone Taylor's poor offensive showing to date is bound to stir some of those conversations. Taylor, 29, is hitting a woeful .180/.208/.260, in 59 plate appearances. If there was any hope that he would be the spark the floundering lineup needed (especially against left-handed pitchers), most people around the team have probably already given up on that notion. The Brewers need to stick with him, though, rather than try bringing Blake Perkins back up or call upon Keston Hiura.

As shockingly bad as the surface-level numbers are, Taylor isn't doing anything markedly worse than he did in 2022. His swing rates both within and outside the zone are essentially unchanged. He's attacking the first pitch a little over 41 percent of the time, which is probably too much to suit his overall profile, but that's a small quibble, especially for a player coming off an injury that cost him spring training. 

When he does swing, Taylor is making contact at a slightly higher rate than last year. When he does make contact, he's hitting fewer ground balls and fewer pop-ups, and he's pulling the ball at the same frequency as last year. His exit velocities are right in line with last season. He's been the victim, mostly, of some buzzard's luck on batted balls.

That's an oversimplification, of course. Taylor didn't really have one 2022 season. He had two or three, subdivided by huge mechanical adjustments he made midstream, and that makes comparing his numbers this year to the full sample from last year a bit misleading. He does seem to have lost a valuable adjustment to his load from late 2022 somewhere on the rollercoaster he's ridden since, which is a problem. 

Still, Taylor is essential to this team right now. He's the most credible backup center fielder to Joey Wiemer in the entire organization. He's already shown off his strong arm and the defensive upside when he plays right. He steals bases and takes the extra base on hits and outs by his teammates, efficiently and aggressively. The Brewers have been baseball's least efficient and aggressive baserunning club this year, and Taylor is a salve for that.

An inveterate tinkerer, Taylor will find some new tweak for his swing soon, and he might go on another hot streak akin to the sizzling September he had in 2022. He hit .299/.343/.597 from September 3 on last year. The Brewers need that version of Taylor, but at the moment, they just need to exercise some excruciating patience, because he's showing enough to merit some confidence that he'll eventually get untracked.

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[Outlander]

The Brewers need to keep giving Taylor a chance because there isn't a better option right now. Probably after next season he gets too expensive and they have a number of outfielders that can play his role better.

[mtsportsfan]

Its not like he isn't making good contact , he is ! Just has had some bad luck ! For some reason I'm not a huge fan of his , but I think he deserves more time!

[wiguy94]

Also should be taken into consideration that Tyrone basically did not have a spring training so him getting off to a slow start isn't at all shocking. Plus if he was performing up to his xwOBA he would have like an 80 wRC+ (which isn't great but but with his defense and base stealing is easy an above average player).

[Jopal78]

Tyrone Taylor is an indicative of what’s wrong with the Brewers. Text book definition of mediocre, yet due to poor overall quality and depth of their position players he’s penciled in the lineup nearly every day.