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Mike Tauchman

Yankees Notes: Voit, Anderson, Offseason

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Just about every day in October corresponds with a memorable Yankees postseason moment, and October 11 is no exception.  It was on this day in 1943 that the Yankees clinched their tenth World Series title, defeating the Cardinals in Game Five on the strength of a complete game shutout from starter Spud Chandler.  While the World Series MVP award didn’t exist back in 1943, it’s safe to say that Chandler would have been the winner — the righty tossed complete games in both the first and fifth games of the series, allowing just one earned run over his 18 innings for an 0.50 ERA.  This brilliant performance capped off a dream year for Chandler, who led the American League in ERA, WHIP, K/BB rate, and wins while winning AL MVP honors.

Something of a forgotten star in Yankees history, Chandler was a late bloomer who didn’t make his MLB debut until age 29.  Chandler posted a 2.84 ERA over 1485 innings for New York between 1937-47 (missing most of 1944 and 1945 while serving in World War II), and had a sterling resume that included four All-Star appearances, two league ERA titles, three World Series rings, and that AL MVP award.

Some items on the modern-day Yankees…

  • Luke Voit will undergo an MRI on his foot today, as the slugger told reporters following the Yankees’ Game Five loss to the Rays on Friday.  While the MRI will reveal the specifics, Voit described his issue as a “classic case of plantar fasciitis.”  Voit’s lack of mobility became more apparent down the stretch, though he had apparently been dealing with the foot problem for much of the season, not that it stopped him from hitting .277/.338/.610 with a league-best 22 homers.
  • There has already been much speculation about how the Yankees will respond to their ALDS loss, though SNY.tv’s Andy Martino doesn’t believe any major free agent spending is in the works due to revenue losses from the 2020 season.  Since spending around baseball is expected to be down this offseason, Martino believes this benefits a Yankees organization that has been adept at finding and developing hidden-gem players in trades and signings.  Of course, the challenge is that the Rays have also been experts in this arena, and Martino notes that the Yankees and Rays have been mutually interested in some of each other’s players.  For instance, the Yankees had interest in Nick Anderson in 2018, before Anderson had even debuted in the majors and before Tampa Bay acquired the ace reliever from the Marlins in July 2019.  Likewise, the Rays looked into a deal for Mike Tauchman back when the outfielder was with the Rockies, prior to Tauchman’s trade to New York in March 2019.
  • Something of a contrast to Martino’s opinion is provided by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, who also believes the Yankees won’t spend much, and in fact might look to get payroll under the $210MM luxury tax threshold to avoid a third straight year of an escalating tax bill.  The one splurge Sherman figures the Yankees “pretty much have to” make is re-signing DJ LeMahieu, given the infielder’s overall importance to the team over the last two seasons.  But, in order to address roster issues like defense and an overload of right-handed hitting, Sherman suggests that Voit or Gleyber Torres could become trade chips to acquire some left-handed pop or some extra pitching depth.  New York would then need a shortstop to replace Torres, and Sherman suggests the team pick up a one-year rental in advance of signing one of the many star shortstops projected to be available in the 2021-22 free agent market.

Tauchman Available For Yankees If Roster Move Needed

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It’s only been five weeks since outfielder Mike Tauchman was diagnosed with a Grade 2 calf strain that came with a six- to eight-week recovery timetable, seemingly ending his season. However, general manager Brian Cashman told Joel Sherman of the New York Post prior to today’s Game 3 against the Astros that Tauchman is “healthy end eligible” to return to the roster, should New York need to place Giancarlo Stanton (or anyone else) on the injured list.

Stanton is currently day-to-day with a quadriceps issue and didn’t start either Game 2 or Game 3 of the current series, but he homered in Game 1 and is hitting .300/.467/.600 thus far in a tiny sample of 15 postseason plate appearances. His bat would be a welcome addition against a potent ’Stros pitching staff, of course, but playing shorthanded also does the club no favors. That said, putting Stanton on the injured list is no small decision; should the Yankees do so and then advance to the World Series, Stanton would be ineligible to return. Notably, there’s quite a bit of rain in tomorrow’s forecast in New York, and potential postponement could buy the team some time to further deliberate.

Tauchman, 28, was a godsend for the injury-plagued Yankees in 2019. The 2013 tenth-round pick never got an extended look in the Majors with the Rockies, but he stepped up with a strong .277/.361/.504 batting line with 13 home runs, 18 doubles and a triple in 296 plate appearances. Even if Tauchman isn’t added to the ALCS roster, the Yankees would have the ability to reset their 25-man group between the ALCS and a theoretical World Series berth.

Mike Tauchman Out Six To Eight Weeks With Grade 2 Calf Strain

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The Yankees have lost outfielder Mike Tauchman for the remainder of the regular season and quite likely for the entirety of the postseason. The team announced to reporters that Tauchman has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 calf strain (Twitter link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com).

Initial indications are that Tauchman will be sidelined for the next six to eight weeks. That spells big trouble for his hopes of being a part of the Yankees’ postseason roster. It’s theoretically possible that Tauchman could be ready if the club makes it into the World Series, but it seems likelier that he won’t suit up again this season.

If this is the last we’ve seen of Tauchman in 2019, his last impression was a good one. Tauchman was two-for-two before departing last night, bringing his season-long batting line to a hefty .277/.361/.504 slash with 13 home runs over 296 plate appearances. That’s stunning production from a player who was acquired late in Spring Training when he became a Rockies roster casualty.

It’s fair to ask whether Tauchman’s output is sustainable. We did just that in early August, and he responded by ripping off another strong month at the plate. While there’s still cause for some wariness, there’s also little doubt that Tauchman deserves to enter camp in 2020 with a presumption of an active roster spot. (It’s worth noting that he’ll be out of options.) Whether or not that’ll be with the Yanks remains to be seen; the Bronx Bombers could take any number of different directions in compiling their outfield unit over the offseason to come.

Injury Notes: Tauchman, Moose, Laureano, Kelly

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Mike Tauchman departed during the fourth inning of Sunday night’s game with what the Yankees described as left calf tightness.  The outfielder suffered the injury while fielding a Brock Holt single, though he told reporters (including James Wagner of the New York Times) that he had recently been dealing with a sore calf and thought he was beyond the problem after a pair of pain-free games.  Tauchman will undergo an MRI on Monday in New York to determine the extent of the issue.

One of many unsung heroes who have stepped up in the wake of a cavalcade of Yankees injuries, Tauchman hit his 13th homer of the season Sunday, improving his slash line to .277/.361/.504 (128 wRC+) over 296 plate appearances.  After two seasons as a spare-parts outfielder with the Rockies, Tauchman has broken out in a major way, which would make it all the more unfortunate if a potential injured list stint were to cut into his availability for the postseason roster.  If Tauchman does have to miss time, the Yankees still have Clint Frazier and Cameron Maybin (himself just returned from a wrist injury) as left field options, and Giancarlo Stanton looms as a potential late-season reinforcement at some point in September.

More on other injury situations from around the game…

  • “I can’t take a swing without pain,” Mike Moustakas told reporters (including JR Radcliffe of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) about the deep wrist bruise that has limited him to a non-hitting role.  “I can hit flips, I can hit BP, and there’s still pain there, but that’s not what’s concerning. It’s when I swing and miss or I check swing and I have to hold my bat.”  The Brewers third baseman sat out seven games within a recent nine-game stretch while trying to recover, and has appeared in each of the club’s last two games but only as a defensive replacement.  While he is happy to help in any way possible while recovering, Moustakas is understandably eager to more fully contribute, and hopes he is getting close to feeling normal at the plate.  “When I’m in an at-bat facing a major league pitcher, you don’t want to be thinking about how bad your hand hurts when you’re trying to hit,” Moustakas said.  “You want to have a clear mind and go out there able to compete. I wasn’t able to do that the last week or so.“
  • As Ramon Laureano works his way back to full health after suffering a stress reaction in his right shin, Athletics manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle) that Laureano will likely play in only two of every three games.  “This probably isn’t going to be an everyday proposition for him for a while,” Melvin said.  Laureano didn’t go through a rehab assignment before returning from his five-week stint on the IL, and left Saturday’s game after suffering a cramp in his right leg.
  • Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly has been battling a lower-body injury, manager Dave Roberts told J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group and other reporters.  The problem is “not a red flag for us,” Roberts said, though he noted that Kelly’s delivery is still being somewhat altered by the injury.  Kelly pitched on Saturday after sitting out the Dodgers’ previous five games.  After signing a three-year, $25MM free agent deal with Los Angeles over the winter, Kelly badly struggled over his first two-plus months but then stabilized things, posting a 2.00 ERA over his last 27 innings (28 outings).

Have The Yankees Found A Keeper In Mike Tauchman?

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The story of this Yankees season hasn’t been one of larger-than-life stars (though some of those have played significant roles as well). It’s one of savvy organizational decisionmaking and depth, of unheralded players stepping up when called to the big stage. A future team biographer might well frame them The 2019 Yankees: Humble Savages. It’s all enough to make even the staunchest fan of an Evil Empire rival start rooting for the New York leviathan. (No? Okay, okay, just checking.)

But what does it all mean? We can and should tip our caps to GM Brian Cashman and his front office, for starters. There are a whole lot of well-conceived individual decisions snowballing here, involving smart roster management, wise player acquisition and development, and deft deployment of talent. Overcoming the injuries — the roster is still riddled with them — has been an impressive feat.

Still, at some point the club is going to pick a 25-man postseason roster. And then there’ll be the eventual wave of 40-man roster culling at the end of the campaign. Fringe roster members — even those that factored prominently this year — can and will be traded or decommissioned to suit the needs of the Yankees machine.

Which leads us to wonder about those heart-and-soul types, those scrappy unknowns who have given so much to this year’s Yanks. Which of them has earned a place in the future plans of the vaunted franchise — or at least a ticket out of town to a greater opportunity elsewhere? And which may ultimately look back on this time not as the start of a long and prosperous Yankees career, but as a blissful-but-fleeting moment when it all came together?

Put otherwise, in the words of the fans of rival clubs (I can only presume): are you serious with this Mike Tauchman guy?

Tauchman landed with the Yanks late in camp when it became clear he wasn’t needed in Colorado. He was already 28 years of age and had only just tasted the majors. All it cost the Yankees was a decent but hardly overwhelming reliever prospect who wouldn’t tie up a 40-man spot for the Rockies.

You know what happened next. It didn’t occur right away, as Tauchman didn’t thrive in his first fill-in work in New York earlier this year. But he has been ablaze since being recalled just after the All-Star break and is currently enjoying something like near-regular playing time in the absence of Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton, and Edwin Encarnacion.

Tauchman’s numbers of late have indeed been ridiculous. He has strode to the dish with bat in hand seventy times over a twenty-game span, driving in twenty runs along the way. Five of those plate appearances have ended in home runs. There are 28 base knocks and six walks. Tauchman has thrown in a pair of steals for good measure.

When you add up all of Tauchman’s contributions this year, he sits at a .299/.371/.563 slash line with ten long balls over 194 MLB plate appearances. That’s a 143 wRC+ — quite good! It’s only fair to note that defensive metrics are also fans of his glovework in left field, boosting him to an eye-popping 2.0 fWAR over just sixty games of action.

There was a reason the Yanks targeted Tauchman in the first place. He had struggled in two brief runs with the Rox, but that’s easy to dismiss. Heck, now that we can put it all in context … was this the inevitable rise of an excellent hitter? Tauchman devastated Triple-A pitching at Albuquerque for two-straight seasons, posting consecutive .331/.386/.555 and .323/.408/.571 batting lines. Even with league context, those were strong numbers. Tauchman’s numbers this year with the top New York affiliate are also strong: .274/.386/.505 with as many walks as strikeouts (16 apiece).

All good so far. But what does a look under the hood show us? There’s not much of particular interest in the K/BB department. Tauchman is walking at a 10.3% clip, which is slightly above-average these days. He’s also going down on strikes at a 27.3% rate. That’s rather elevated, though not to the point of being a major concern in and of itself. Tauchman’s 9.8% swinging-strike rate isn’t alarming and he has a high-contact history in the minors, having typically sat in the fifteen-percent K-rate range. He’s also carrying a meager 22.8% chase rate, so he’s obviously seeing the ball well at the moment.

It’s somewhat intriguing to wonder about a version of Tauchman that maintains the power — he owns a hefty .264 ISO — while drawing down the strikeouts closer to his upper-minors levels. But that probably isn’t realistic. True, he has done it before, but never to this extent … and only in high-powered offensive environments against sub-MLB pitching.

The biggest red flags come when you look at the contact outputs. Tauchman is carrying a .378 batting average on balls in play — an obviously unsustainable number, but one that can reflect the fact that a player is absolutely stinging the baseball.

That’s not really the case here. Tauchman does have a strong 9.2% barrel rate, but he’s carrying an unremarkable 88.5 mph exit velocity. Statcast credits him only with a .316 xwOBA, vastly lagging his .384 wOBA and suggesting that there has been no shortage of good fortune in outcomes. Indeed, Tauchman’s ten long balls have flown an average distance of only 384 feet — a Sogardian level that doesn’t exactly portend an ability to sustain a whopping 27.0% HR/FB rate.

Odds are, Tauchman’s hot streak will subside. This probably isn’t a true breakout; it’s not the result of some major change to mechanics or approach that might support a sustainable power boost. But that doesn’t mean Tauchman is destined to be dumped at season’s end. It’s possible he’ll feel the roster crunch and end up elsewhere — notably, he’ll be out of options next year — but it isn’t too hard to imagine the Yanks giving him an ongoing role. Tauchman has an excellent hit tool and at-least-decent pop. He comes with loads of minor-league experience in center field and (as noted) has graded quite well this year with the glove. There’s a potential path to a left-handed-hitting fourth outfielder role that’d fit the roster quite nicely… depending upon how things turn out with long-time Yankees stalwart and pending free agent Brett Gardner, who has enjoyed a renaissance year at the plate thus far.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Yankees Acquire Mike Tauchman From Rockies

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Per a team release, the Yankees have acquired OF Mike Tauchman from Colorado for lefty Phillip Diehl. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery was placed on the 60-day IL to make 40-man room for the outfielder.

Tauchman, 28, has just 69 MLB plate appearances under his belt despite a monster minor-league performance over the last two seasons. With AAA-Albuquerque in 2018, Tauchman slashed .323/.408/.571 with an outstanding 12.7% BB/14.9% K plate-discipline profile. ZiPS projects the lefty, who could see time at all three outfield spots for New York, to post a solid 96 wRC+/1.9 WAR season over 513 plate appearances in 2018.

Diehl, 24, moved to the bullpen full-time in the New York farm last season, to mostly excellent results. He didn’t crack the team’s top 30 prospects at either Baseball America or MLB.com, but if his 14.61 K/9 at high-A Tampa is any indication, the lefty’ll certainly be on the radar of the Rockies brass.

West Notes: Dodgers, Kemp, Rangers, Colon, Rockies

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There continues to be in-house “conversation and debate” about what the Dodgers will do in regards to their left field competition, according to Dave Roberts, but the manager seems bullish on veteran Matt Kemp (via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). “When you make the trade and you look at the seasons guys had last year who we have coming back, we were already a very good team without Matt,” said Roberts. “But to have a former All-Star in as good a shape as he’s been in years and add him to the mix, it only increases the level of competition to play for everyone around him. That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing for all of us.” The 33-year-old Kemp has gone 12 of 36 with four home runs this spring as he attempts to grab a job as part of a mix that also features Joc Pederson, Enrique Hernandez, Andrew Toles, Alex Verdugo and Trayce Thompson. Plunkett examines each of those players’ cases and suggests that Kemp may well open 2018 as the Dodgers’ primary option in left. Kemp, a former star with the Dodgers, rejoined the team over the winter in a luxury tax-geared trade with the Braves. He’s in the penultimate year of a huge contract, which he signed during his original run with the Dodgers, and set to make $21.5MM this year.

More from out West…

  • Thanks to his struggles this spring, right-hander Bartolo Colon isn’t a lock to make the Rangers, TR Sullivan of MLB.com writes. Further clarity should come Sunday, when left-hander Martin Perez starts. Perez underwent surgery on a fractured right elbow last December, but if he’s healthy, he’ll take a season-opening rotation spot. That would leave the 44-year-old Colon vying for a long reliever/swing starter role, though the Rangers signed Jesse Chavez with the goal of using him in that capacity, Sullivan notes. For his part, Colon would be willing to fill that position if it’s available – “I will do anything I need to do to make the team,” he said. Notably, Colon has come out of the bullpen a mere nine times in 537 career appearances.
  • The Rangers have considered extending first baseman Joey Gallo and outfielder Nomar Mazara this spring, but it doesn’t appear either those two or any of Texas’ other young players will receive a long-term deal at this point (via Sullivan). “We are always interested in talking to our best young players,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “But I don’t expect anything at this point.” As things stand, both players are still under control for several more years. Gallo won’t become eligible arbitration until after the 2019 season, while Mazara is in his last pre-arb year.
  • Rockies outfielder David Dahl is likely to begin the year in the minors, thus opening up a spot on Colorado’s bench for fellow outfielder Mike Tauchman, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post explains. The 27-year-old Tauchman brings minimal major league experience (32 plate appearances, all of which came last season), but he has performed well in the minors and could make more sense for a reserve role than Dahl, 23. While Dahl’s a former high-end prospect who impressed as a rookie two years ago, a rib injury kept him from the majors last season, and there’s no obvious path to playing time for him in Colorado at the moment. As such, he’s likely to begin the year as a full-time player at the Triple-A level.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/27/17

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We’ll track the day’s minor moves in this post:

  • The Marlins have outrighted infielder Christian Colon to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, per a club announcement. The 28-year-old Colon was a waiver claim from the Royals just over a month ago but struggled at the plate in his brief time with Miami. Through 38 plate appearances, the former No. 4 overall draft pick batted just .152/.243/.182 with a double and seven strikeouts. He’ll provide the team with some infield depth.
  • Right-hander Alex Wimmers has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Rochester from the Twins, tweets Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The former first-rounder has moved to the bullpen in recent seasons and had some success in Triple-A but not much in the Majors. He threw 7 1/3 inning with Minnesota this year and walked more batters (nine) than he struck out (eight). He does have a more respectable a 3.72 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 4.1 BB/9 in 67 2/3 career innings at Triple-A, though.
  • The Rays have selected the contract of left-hander Adam Kolarek, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, who is out with a hip fracture, was moved from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL to clear a spot on the 40-man for Kolarek, who will be making his MLB debut. The 28-year-old Kolarek, a longtime Mets farmhand, is in his second season with the Rays organization and has excelled with a 1.36 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a ludicrous 77 percent ground-ball rate through 33 frames with Triple-A Durham this year. Kolarek is no stranger to gaudy ground-ball rates, as he induced worm burners at a 68.7 percent clip in 41 1/3 innings with Durham in 2016 as well.
  • According to a club announcement, the Rockies selected the contract of outfielder Mike Tauchman from Triple-A Albuquerque and moved David Dahl to the 60-day disabled list to create a roster spot. The former 10th-rounder is enjoying a strong season, hitting .313/.377/.529 with 10 homers and 11 steals through 298 plate appearances, albeit in a very hitter-friendly setting. Tauchman, 26, isn’t considered to be one of the Rockies’ best prospects, though Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen did mention him briefly in looking at the Rockies’ farm prior to the year, noting that he possesses good contact skills and is an above-average defender that lacks power.
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