At the age of 27, with a career (minor league) OPS just under .900, you might think that Travis Taijeron is a forgotten prospect. You might think him one of the players who gets ignored because of pedigree, regardless of performance. That isn’t, quite, the case. Does Taijeron have power? Yes. Can he hit? Sure. Does he have power? You bet! Is he a major league talent? Nope. The reason for that is his lack of discipline at the plate. Unless he can somehow stop striking out once a game, there isn’t much that he will do at the major league level.
This spring he has had 12 at bats over 5 games. During that time he’s clubbing a .417/.462/.667 line and leading the team in RBIs. Unfortunately, he’s also leading the team in strikeouts and that is unfortunately all too common.
Taijeron will get his chances this season, should injuries befall the outfielders but he has a lot to figure out in AAA before the fans should get too excited.
Other Early Performers:
Dilson Herrera is off to a powerful start – Of his 3 hits, he has 1 triple and 1 home run. That’s the kind of stuff that helps a slugging percentage.
Dominic Smith getting his first taste – He’s getting his hits and not being blinded by the spotlight.
Gabriel Ynoa has looked good so far – He’s not a top prospect but he has been good early on.
Sean Gilmartin might be earning his way into AAA – It’s not that he’s been bad, he hasn’t. The Mets might wish to convert the lefty pitcher back into a starter in the minors instead of holding him in the majors.
Seth Lugo has been sharp – It’s early but Lugo looks more and more like a major league reliever.
Josh Smoker is making some buzz – Scouts are beginning to talk about Smoker again and he’s looking like he’s finally ready to make an MLB impact.
Looks like Matt Reynolds may be pushing Rueben Tejada off the team as the 2nd back up infielder. I would swap Rueben for a back up catcher or prospect and save the $3 million.
Mets could accept cash considerations without much regret. It was never a signing that made sense this off-season.
Jean Segura is making similar money, and has been far worse than Tejada the last 2 years, and yet the Brewers were able to fetch a 4th starter for him.
True enough but there are only so many Dave Stewart GMs out there.
Isn’t Reynolds only a so-so fielder? Tejada may not be Ordonez, but he can be an above-average shortstop.
Tejada is the back up shortstop. Nobody wants to,see Flores out there again.
I would prefer to never see Ruben Tejada in a Met starting lineup again. I would prefer starting Lucas Duda at shortstop.
Travis Taijeron = Mark Carreon, at best.
Fair enough. Don’t agree with the point about Taijeron that Ks equal failure. His OPS seems to contadict that. Plenty of high strikeout guys succeed because of a high OPS!
You can’t look at a raw OPS from Las Vegas and expect similar production in the majors. Our rule of thumb for Vegas to Queens is to remove 19% of his OBP and 34% of his SLG. So, the major league equivalent becomes a .318 OBP and a .354 SLG for a .672 OPS. That won’t cut it in the majors for an OF there for his bat.
As for strikeouts specifically, if minor league pitchers are striking Taijeron out 31% of the time – what are MLB pitchers going to do to him? Kirk Nieuwenhuis struck out 25% of the time in Triple-A. In the majors, he has a 31% rate. No one who qualified for the batting title last year had a strikeout rate higher than Chris Davis’ 31%. And I don’t think Taijeron is any threat to hit 47 homers. Davis had a 24% strikeout rate at Triple-A.
Thanks for the course correction Brian. I was starting to get giddy for no reason.
I definitely think he should get a chance to play for the mets team. Conforto can’t hit lefty’s Travis should get a chance and Duda can’t hit lefty’s Travis can play first. He has plenty of pop and I think he’ll be a welcome surprise, hitting 380 right now in spring training.
I really don’t know why the Mets have Taijeron in camp. A more logical turn of events would have Travis jetting to Japan, or maybe the Korean League, and his spot in camp allotted to…..T. J. Rivera.
Rivera is not a prospect for one reason, really. Well, two reasons; he has been allowed to over-ripen in on the farm, but that was because he wasn’t a prospect in the first place.
So, one reason, that being: he’s an undrafted player. All he can do is play baseball well. He would be an upgrade over Omar Infante in Kansas City, for one example; and if he was in camp maybe some team would notice.
Grumble, grumble.
Oops, just noticed that Rivera is in camp. Anyway.
I’m a little biased here because Travis was my college teammate and roommate. But I must say I don’t care about strikeouts. Trav always struck out. But it’s usually the only way he gets out. He was always the best hitter on the field by far. As long as he is producing who cares how an out is made! I’ve never in all my life seen a guy get doubted by scouts at every level (high school, juco, D2) and continually prove them wrong.