Taylor hoping for carryover into regular season

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Michael A. Taylor doesn't want to be known as the King of Spring. So the soft-spoken Nationals outfielder is embarking on something that's a little foreign to many younger players: He's reinventing himself to try to wipe away negative impressions that came with a season he'd prefer to forget.

Last spring, after the Nats had acquired Ben Revere to man center field, Taylor had about the best spring training anyone could have imagined. He led all Nationals regulars in batting average and slugging percentage, slashing .453/.491/.849. He hit a team-leading five home runs, finished second with 16 Grapefruit League RBIs and forced manager Dusty Baker to ponder how he was going to get his hot stick in a veteran lineup with no apparent openings.

Then, on opening day, Revere pulled an oblique muscle swinging during his first-at bat. With Revere on the shelf for the first month of the season - and struggling to regain his stroke for weeks once he was activated from the disabled list early in May - Taylor had his opportunity.

To say he wasted it would be an understatement.

Taylor slashed only .231/.278/.376 in 76 games. His defense suffered as a result of his prolonged struggles at the plate, which included 77 strikeouts in 221 at-bats, and he was sent to Triple-A Syracuse for seven weeks, his demotion coinciding with the recall of Trea Turner, who switched from shortstop to center field and ignited the lineup in the second half.

"We gave him plenty of opportunity to take that job last year, and maybe he wasn't ready," Baker said. "I watched Mookie Betts and I watched some of the Boston guys who struggled the year before and figured it out. You don't know when the light is going to come on, and you hope that it does come on and that you do figure it out. And if it had come on last year, then we would have never had ... the need to go get (Adam) Eaton."

But the Nats traded three top pitching prospects to acquire Eaton from the White Sox, and the 25-year-old Taylor is now fighting to remain on the 25-man roster. The Nationals will likely carry two reserve outfielders, veteran Chris Heisey, who excelled as a pinch-hitter, and someone who can play all three outfield positions. That means Taylor and Brian Goodwin are battling for a single spot on the break-camp roster.

"So now you got to work your way back up the ladder, so to speak, because that was a tremendous, tremendous opportunity," Baker said. "Very rarely do you see that - Ben Revere got hurt the first at-bat and then the job's yours and then people are wondering how I'm going to be able to get Michael Taylor 300 or 400 at-bats."

The irony is not lost on Taylor, who has hit nearly as well this spring as he did last year. Through 11 games, he's slashing .391/.391/.696 with a double, two homers and a team-high six RBIs.

"I feel pretty good at the plate," he said. "Trying to keep things simple right now. Just stick to my approach and put together good at-bats."

The trick will be carrying that same mental approach into the regular season and not leaving it in the Florida sunshine. Last year, the regular season version of Taylor - the free swinger who seemed not to have a defined thought process at the plate - looked nothing like the patient, confident batter who terrorized Grapefruit League pitchers.

Taylor readily admits a promising opportunity got away from him.

"Definitely," he said. "During the season, I kind of felt myself pressing a lot, looking more for the result and the outcome rather than just sticking with my plan and just going out there and playing."

Taylor insists there's no added pressure on him this spring, even though it might appear otherwise. He's commuting from his home near Fort Lauderdale daily to the Nationals complex, and focused on maintaining a consistent approach at the plate.

"Every year, you want to come in and do well, go out there and play well," Taylor said. "But I'm really just trying to focus on getting better. I want to be more consistent in my approach.

"Just continuing to do the same thing. It is easier here, because guys know these numbers don't stay with you, but it's still baseball. So during the year, go out there and do the same thing and carry the same mentality."

But impressive spring stats can haunt a player who's incapable of carrying the same success into the regular season.

"Michael's been hitting the ball great, but he's just got to keep playing," Baker said. "We saw that last year, as well. We want him to be able to translate that to the season, transfer that to the season."

How important is a good spring to Taylor's short- and long-term futures?

"It would help," Baker said. "He had a great spring ... last year, too. I'm just hoping that he can transfer that to the season. I just hope that he's not a spring training hitter, because I've seen those, too."