The Mets are treating Tyrone Taylor like a trade chip they’d rather not expose.
With the deadline creeping closer, New York has plenty of moving parts in the outfield and at designated hitter, but Taylor has been the odd man out lately. He wasn’t in Wednesday’s lineup against the Milwaukee Brewers, and the club shuffled things again by putting Brett Baty in right field to start the afternoon. Marcus Semien also moved back to second base.
Taylor’s recent production is the kind that can tempt a team to keep him in a protected lane. In July, he’s hitting .333/.400/.889 with four home runs, all of them solo shots.
Those homers account for all four of his RBIs this month, and he’s also added three doubles for seven extra-base hits. Before July began, he had only six extra-base hits all season.
Even with that surge, Taylor still isn’t drawing much attention as a major trade piece. ESPN’s recent top 100 trade candidates list left him off entirely, though it did include Mark Vientos. That lines up with the reality of Taylor’s market: he’s not the kind of player expected to bring back much, and the Mets seem aware of that.
What Taylor offers is straightforward. He’s a useful fourth or fifth outfielder who can run, defend, and occasionally provide some pop.
But he’s also a hitter who can disappear for long stretches, and his offense has been a little worse with the Mets than it was with the Brewers. If New York gets anything meaningful for him, it likely comes in the form of a lottery-ticket type return - maybe a random teenage prospect or two.
One possible deal mentioned on Rising Apple earlier this week had Taylor going back to the Brewers for a pair of 19-year-old prospects. That’s the sort of trade that can look forgettable in the moment and only reveal its value years later.
Taylor did not play in any of the games against Milwaukee after appearing in all three against the Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend. With his contract expiring, the expectation is that the Mets will shop him and take what they can get.
For now, though, they appear content to keep his value from slipping. Whether that’s smart or not, it means nobody is going to be fooled into paying extra - and someone else might eventually realize he can be had for less.
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