The Mike Tauchman effect

[jacksonianmarch]

Right before the end of ST, the Yanks dealt for Mike Tauchman when it became clear that Aaron Hicks would need more time with a back injury. The need to backup CF necessitated the move as the highly touted Clint Frazier was clearly not a CF option due to his lack of big league level defense. We dealt a 25 yr old lefty reliever in Phil Diehl for him. Now, Tauchman is no kid. He is 28 yrs old and as a former 10th round pick, has moved slowly through the minors. Everywhere he went, he hit for average, but it wasn't until he repeated AAA in 2017 that he added power. Prior to 2017, he hit s a total of 8HR in almost 400ABs in the minors. In 2017, he slugged 16HRs in 475ABs. He followed that up with 20HRs in 471ABs in 2018 and received an unsuccessful cup of coffee in 2018 with the Rox.

Cashman had apparently had his scouts on him. This is similar to the wildly successful Luke Voit theft in 2018 where the Yankees scouts identified a player with high exit velocities and a knack for hitting for average and figured he was worth a shot. Phil Diehl was a small price to pay and knowing the Yankees, they knew he would fail in the elevation. He's a lefty junkballer who relies on a sinker. Sinkers notoriously don't bite at altitude. Albuquerque is a city at 1 mile elevation and Diehl has been awful. Tauchman on the other hand, has been intriguing and may be playing himself into a bigger role and playing a prospect into a trade.

Tauchman plays really good defense. He is a flat UZR/150 CFer this year and a plus defender in the corners. That makes for a big improvement over Frazier. But he has started to unleash that high exit velocity and his OPS is now over .800. When he first started with us, he was getting around the ball and if it was an outside pitch, he was late and was an easy K. Since coming back from a demotion, he has been absolute nails hitting all over the field, hitting lefties and hitting for power. The Mike Tauchman effect has left us with a very strong 4th OFer for 2019, but it might be more than that. With the Yankees having a probable hole in 2020 in LF (assuming no Gardy return which isn't a given), the assumption was that Frazier would be ticketed for that spot come 2020. With Tauchman outplaying Frazier by a long shot defensively and showing he isn't a downgrade offensively, he might be good enough to make Cash far more comfortable sending out Frazier and getting us some pitching help.

[Meh]

Voit is one of my favorite Yankees right now. I was thinking about buying a shirt of him. Tauchman has had an excellent July, but its a July. I hope he's legit... I just want to see it more.