ARLINGTON, Texas – There have always been moments when Leody Taveras flashed five-tool skills. The problem is that they have been merely that: Moments. They have been separated by too much time.
But put a few of those moments together and get a night. Put a couple of nights together and you get series. What comes after that, the Rangers are anxious to find out.
A day after breaking a major league 0 for 31 skid that had dated back to mid-April with a double, a homer and one of those nice gliding catches in right center he makes look easy, Taveras homered again Tuesday. He also walked and stole two bases. Not coincidentally, the Rangers beat Colorado, 4-3.
They have actually won three straight, their longest winning streak since late June. Win Wednesday’s series finale and they will match this sour season’s longest winning streak. You know what we’re about to say: The wins and losses no longer matter. Only individual projects. Of which, Taveras taking something positive away from this season is one.
Taveras, who doesn’t turn 23 until next week, is the youngest player to appear for the Rangers this season. He opened the season as the starting center fielder, but quickly lost the job to Adolis García, then lost his spot on the big league roster. He looked overmatched at the plate in April, worked on it at Round Rock and then returned to look … overmatched for his first week back.
“He had done some really good work the last two or three days,” hitting instructor Luis Ortiz said. “The challenge for us is that when a guy comes back up, you have to let him go through a couple of days of maybe doing what they were doing before. Then they realize maybe that’s not going to work and get back to things they were working on.”
“He’s still not a finished product,” Ortiz added. “The task that we gave him when we sent him down was to minimize movement. We wanted him to try less [to hit for power] and hit more to his ID. I think the potential is there to be a five-tool player. But, at this time he has to control the strike zone and hit the ball on a low trajectory. He can’t try to hit home runs and get hits; he has to try to get hits and that will produce homers. I think that is what he’s learning. He’s organizing his body a little better.”
When the switch-hitter came back up a week ago, opponents employed the same approach regardless of which side of the plate he was on: They pitched him away. Taveras, Ortiz said, was opening up the front side of his swing early, making him susceptible to stuff away. He might get to the pitch, but the result was weak contact.
Hence: The need to better “organize his body.”
In his first at-bat Tuesday against lefty Austin Gomber, he got into a hole chasing a couple of pitches away, then fouled off a changeup before lifting a soft fly to center field. The next time up: An adjustment. He didn’t chase a first pitch off the zone, worked ahead in the count 3-0 and then blasted a full-count fastball into the seats.
In the sixth, against right-hander Yency Almonte, he refused to chase anything off the outside part of the plate, even after the first pitch, which looked wide, was called a strike. His patience paid off in a walk. He then stole second and third base.
He strung together the moments on Tuesday for a strong night. He has strung together consecutive nights. It may not yet represent a corner turned, but it does hint at progress.
