Welcome to the 2017 MLB postseason, baseball fans! You’ve spent 162 games with your favorite team, and now it’s time to watch the teams you haven’t paid much attention to. Who are these teams, and who are their best players? We can help.
Chris Taylor is the do-everything solution to any Dodgers’ problem
You will be shocked, but the Mariners traded a young player who is now starring for another team.
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
Who is Chris Taylor?
Chris Taylor is whomever and whatever the Dodgers have needed him to be, and that’s been huge for them as they tried to deal with injuries, a record pace, and stopping the bleeding near the end of the season.
What did he do this year?
Taylor began the season in the minors, but when Logan Forsythe fractured his toe early on in April, he found himself in Los Angeles. All Taylor has done since then is hit and play wherever the Dodgers needed him: He might have started off coming up because of Forsythe’s injury, but Taylor has logged playing time in center field, left field, at second base, third base, and at shortstop. He’s appeared in 140 games, accrued 568 plate appearances, and batted .288/.354/.496 for a 122 OPS+ in them.
How did the Dodgers acquire him?
It’s a tale as old as time: The Mariners gave up a young player who hadn’t succeeded in Seattle, and then that player blossomed with his new organization. At least in this case, it was a challenge trade of sorts, with then-24-year-old Taylor going to the Dodgers in exchange for Zach Lee, who had lost his prospect sheen, so the expectation was there that both could be good with a change of scenery.
Only Taylor ended up being good.
Was he always supposed to be this good?
Taylor was never a top-100 prospect. He succeeded in the minors with Seattle when he was a bit old for the level, and his numbers in the Triple-A level PCL weren’t eye-popping. He’s better than he was ever expected to be, but he’s also not the first guy with a great eye and patience in the minors who later turned that into major league productivity.
He also wouldn’t have been the first player with a great eye and patience in the minors who couldn’t stop letting major league pitchers exploit the weaknesses that kept him from ever being more in the minors, though, so, you know. It’s still a surprise, and the good kind for the Dodgers.
tl;dr
Taylor is a significant part of the Dodgers’ success and better than anyone expected him to be. He’s also a young player the Mariners traded to another team, so maybe we should have seen this coming.
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