To call the tenure of Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Tyrone Taylor a rollercoaster ride would be a vast understatement; in fact, those carnival rides seem like a tame merry-go-round compared to the tumultuous ups and downs of Taylor’s career. One week he looks like an irreplaceable all-star, the next he resembles a minor leaguer struggling to rationalize his station as a professional. The ups and downs exhibited by Taylor that Brewers fans endured last season were legendary; over the course of 2022, his OPS marks, by month, were .574 in April, .872 in May, .573 in June, .849 in July, .588 in August and .913 in September/October. Talk about a wild ride, this is it. However, one mlb.com reporter has seen enough promise in those “up” months to label Taylor as part of his All-Underrated team for 2023.
CASTROVINCE’S CRITERIA FOR BEING “UNDERRATED”
Fans may wonder how mlb.com writer Anthony Castrovince can rationalize a player who has never been an everyday player in the major leagues as “underrated.” However, Castrovince has quite the rubric when determining his list.
According to Castrovince in his February 6th article, these are the requirements to be eligible for the All-Underrated Team:
• No All-Star appearances in the player’s career
• No BBWAA awards (MVP, Cy Young, or Rookie of the Year) in the player’s career
• No All-MLB Team honors in the player’s career
• No inclusion on MLB Network’s current “Top 10 Right Now!” lists
• No nine-figure contracts
• At least two years of MLB service time
With all of those requirements, not many players across baseball would qualify for all six of those bullet points. However, known players such as Baltimore’s Ryan Mountcastle, Cleveland’s Amed Rosario, and Mets outfield Mark Canha found their way into Castrovince’s underrated file.
TAYLOR’S “UNDERRATED” CASE
Not playing every day has certainly hampered Taylor’s quest for consistency. However, with the departures of Hunter Renfroe and Andrew McCutchen, Milwaukee’s once-crowded outfield appears more sparse, leaving room for Taylor to claim one of the three spots.
Castrovince cites this and his defensive prowess as reasons for optimism about Taylor’s progress. When rhetorically asking why Taylor should be considered underrated, he writes “when you add it all up, his .748 OPS over the last two seasons is identical to that of recent, touted Toronto trade acquisition Daulton Varsho. Taylor logged that while playing a majority of his innings in center field, where last season he was worth the same number of Outs Above Average (5) as 2021 Gold Glove winner Michael A. Taylor. The Brewers’ Taylor also rated in the 80th percentile in sprint speed last year.”
Does Taylor need to play 140-150 games to demonstrate his worth as a major league outfielder? Maybe, but if Taylor is able to limit the drastic down times of his amusement park ride season, Brewers fans could be for a more pleasurable outcome from this talented two-way player.
