From the perspective of a baseball fan who doesn’t follow the Giants, Mike Tauchman looks like a superstar — he’s robbed two game-saving homers and hit a go-ahead grand slam. From the perspective of a baseball fan who follows Giants fans on Twitter, Mike Tauchman is the worst player in baseball history. And from the perspective of a hardcore Giants fan (me) . . . it’s very, very complicated.
Let’s start with a recap of Tauchman’s Giants tenure. On April 27, 2021, almost three months ago, the Yankees traded outfielder Mike Tauchman to the Giants in exchange for left-handed relief pitcher Wandy Peralta and a player to be named later (first-base prospect Connor Cannon). I was initially very excited to see Tauchman because he had a very good stretch in 2019, and Farhan Zaidi had said he’d had his eye on him for a while. With the track record of Zaidi and our hitting coaches, I thought Tauchman would be putting up a near-.400 OBP. And what he did was . . . not that.
Tauchman made his Giants debut on April 28 in Colorado and went on the injured list on June 29 In that stretch, other than the aforementioned highlights, Tauchman was just not good. He hit .180/.292/.295 with 4 HR and a 70 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+; league average is 100). He also struck out in 28.6% of his at-bats, and just never really looked comfortable at the plate.
When Tauchman made a spectacular catch in right field at Dodger Stadium on June 29, he sprained his right knee. Some fans wished for a speedy recovery, some celebrated not having to watch him play, and some were in between. Personally, one of my first thoughts was about Curt Casali and how his offense was rejuvenated by an IL stint, and I wondered if the same thing could happen to Tauchman.
As of my writing this, Tauchman has only had 10 plate appearances since coming off the IL, so it’s very hard to make any conclusions about that. But for the record, he’s 1 for 9 with a single, walk, and 4 strikeouts.
To summarize, as a Giant, Tauchman is slashing .176/.287/.284 with 4 home runs, as well as a 66 wRC+ and -0.1 fWAR. Any way you slice it, that’s well below average. Something else to keep in mind is the trade deadline, and if Tauchman may be included in a package for someone like Joey Gallo, Starling Marte, or Mitch Haniger, who are all people Zaidi has stated he’d be interested in.
So, what do I think the Giants should do with Tauchman? Honestly, if he’s not going to be included in a Gallo/Marte/Haniger trade package, I wouldn’t mind keeping him around. I have zero reason to not trust this front office, and Zaidi saying he’s had his eye on Tauchman for a while has stuck in my brain. Let’s not forget about how we all felt about Curt Casali in April and May, and look how he’s pulled himself together. This team has the best record in baseball, and Tauchman has played in 62% of our games. Basically, despite how painful his at-bats may be, I’m not ready to give up on him yet.
Oracle Outsider 