"Dynamic" Taylor featured in leading role early

Nationals center fielder Michael A. Taylor was in a pressure-packed situation late Monday afternoon. Not only was the 23-year-old starting in his first opening day game of his major league career, but manager Matt Williams had him placed at the top of the order.

"I was really excited," said Taylor. "I wasn't too nervous. I felt pretty comfortable out there. It was exciting. The stadium was loud, the fans were up. It was nice."

Taylor dug in the box staring out at 18-year veteran Bartolo Colon on the hill for the Mets. After falling behind in the count, he calmly singled to start the game.

"Just got to two strikes and that point just trying to battle, protect the plate," said Taylor. "He's sinking a lot of balls off and just trying to fight something off."

It would turn out to be one of only four hits the Nats could muster against the 41-year-old Colon, a former American League Cy Young Award winner. More importantly for Taylor, it provided the type of at-bat that he and Williams have been focused on all spring.

Strikeouts are the biggest issue for the highly regarded prospect. He had a total of 144 of them between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse last year and 17 more in just 39 at-bats in the majors after his August call-up. Taylor worked all spring on a better approach when facing two strike counts.

"Mike's got lots of talent," said Williams. "He's dynamic in every aspect. He can run, he plays good defense, he's got power. The key for him is to be able to swing at strikes and get in good hitting counts and let his bat go to work. (On Monday,) he battled in a two-strike count the first time up and singled. So I like where he's at, I like the way he's playing and he'll get better and better as he goes."

Taylor would go down swinging in the eighth inning of Monday's loss and end up 1-for-4 on the afternoon.

He introduced his power to the majors last season when he homered against the Mets at Citi Field in his big league debut. It was on display this spring, when he led the team with four home runs in Grapefruit League play. He caught the attention of Tigers ace Justin Verlander when he blasted two homers off one of the game's most decorated pitchers two weeks ago.

"He's got power, arguably the best power we've got," Williams said of Taylor. "I mean, you watch him take batting practice, it's pretty phenomenal."

That makes Taylor an intriguing option as a leadoff hitter. His other two homers this spring came on bombs to straightaway center field to start games. Last year, he hit 23 homers and drove in 67 runs in 110 games in the minors.

"He's still a young rookie player kind of finding himself at the big league level, but he's got a lot of talent. He's a five-tool candidate type of player," said Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo this spring.

The defense and speed were on display in the seventh inning of Monday's game when Mets catcher Travis d'Arnaud smoked an offering from Nats starter Max Scherzer deep to the left-center power alley. Taylor, who appears to glide his 6-foot-3 frame when dashing across the outfield, crashed against the wall, but was unable to come down with the ball, which smacked off the padding just above him for a run-scoring triple.

"I thought he had a chance," said Williams. "It's a difficult play, ball is hit well, and he timed it perfectly up against the wall. He was just short."

After the game, Taylor was still frustrated with the play, which gave the Mets a two-run cushion.

"The ball was carrying pretty well," said Taylor. "I picked up the wall a couple times and felt like I had a pretty good idea where I was at on the field. I went for the catch and it just went over my glove. I felt like I had a good beat on it and I thought I had it, so it was pretty disappointing when I didn't pull it down."

The Nats figure to benefit from Taylor making that play more times than not. They need the youngster to provide that spark at the top of the order along with dynamic defense in center field until veteran Denard Span is able to return from core muscle surgery. Meanwhile, Taylor probably has three to four weeks to make his case to stay in the lineup after Span comes back.