Dodgers News: Chris Taylor Remains in Struggle Mode at the Plate
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Ever since signing that big deal with the Dodgers in free agency, things for Chris Taylor have been a grind. The 2021 NL All-Star hit just .221 last season while striking out a team-high 160 times in only 118 games.
To his credit, he's trying to put the pieces back together, as he told the OC Register recently. In the offseason, he joined a group of Dodgers who visited the Driveline baseball facility in Washington state looking to improve. As we've heard from Max Muncy, who was also on the trip, a focus for some players was weighted bat training to increase bat speed.
Seeing what CT3 had to say about it, you wonder if he feels it's causing some of the issues this spring.
“I needed to clean up some of my moves and be more efficient with my moves more so than bat speed right now. It’s something I’ve been working with the hitting coaches on. I don’t want to go into too much detail. Just trying to be more efficient. When I’m feeling good, I can cover the four-seam fastball and take that pitch to the opposite field and that kind of opens everything up for me.”
Taylor has just 3 hits in 26 at-bats this spring while striking out 10 times in 10 games.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts isn't wavering in his faith in Chris, offering up a vintage Doc-ism to the media.
“Right now, I’m gonna let the process with Chris and the hitting coaches play out. But I have no problem betting on the player, the person.”
Taylor will have time to figure it out, but how long the team can hold out hope is the $16 million question.
“With CT," Roberts added, "we all know how hard he works, how much he’s going to grind and compete. Right now he just seems out of whack. That’s what spring training is for. There’s nothing that says you’ve got to be locked in right now. We’ve got plenty of time. But right now he just seems a little out of whack.”
There are 15 days until opening day and 14 spring training games to be played.
