Baker appears to be willing to let Taylor work on lead-off spot

Michael A. Taylor has had some big hits this young season but has not been as consistent at the plate as some might have hoped when he was moved to the top of the order.

Back in early April, center fielder Ben Revere was injured in the first game at Atlanta. It appeared that maybe it was just going to be a couple of days and that Revere was a "fast healer" from what was diagnosed as a right oblique strain.

Revere was placed on the 15-day disabled list.

Unfortunately, an injury like this can linger.

An oblique strain in baseball is like a foot injury in basketball or a knee injury in football; it can hang around and bite you if you don't handle it correctly.

Revere said in Philadelphia that an oblique strain can be a major issue when that part of your body is compensating for strength that might not be coming from other parts of your body when you swing the bat. It is like when your trainer tells you to lift with your legs on the squat machine, don't lift with your back.

To build back the oblique, Revere has concentrated on building strength in his core, his legs and upper body before returning to the twist and turn he would need to administer a violent baseball swing. This process of recovery takes a long time because you hold off on baseball-related activities for sometimes weeks at a time.

It appears that Revere may not be able to return until at least mid-May. That is at least another 24 days the Nationals will need a lead-off hitter.

Taylor has certainly worked hard in that No. 1 spot to try to get on base and make good contact. But recently it has been a bit of a struggle.

Last season, Taylor struck out 158 times in 138 games. This year he has struck out 21 times in his first 14 games.

Taylor is hitting .175 for the season and .182 the last week of games. He has batted in lead-off spot in 51 games (46 starts) and his on-base percentage is .225.

His numbers are almost identical batting first or batting eighth.

He has nine doubles, one triple, six homers and 22 RBIs batting lead-off. He has nine doubles, six homers and 27 RBIs batting in the No. 8 spot in the order.

It's a bigger sample size, but Taylor has walked 25 times in 74 games batting in the No. 8 spot over his career and has had only seven walks in 51 games leading off.

One other interesting statistic is his ability when there are runners in scoring position, which would not happen as often when he leads off.

In that scenario, he has a career slash line of .286/.354/.444, with seven doubles, two triples, three homers and 51 RBIs in 144 plate appearances.

But just because one player is not being as consistent at the plate as one may want this early in the season, manager Dusty Baker is not one to give up that easily.

One thing you can definitely count on with Baker is he is not the type of skipper that rattles his starters' cages in the lineup order.

He will give his veterans time off, and it has worked well with such a strong bench.

But, bottom line is he will not mess around with the lineup. Even with Taylor's struggles, he has stuck with the same lineup for most of the season.

On Thursday, he did alter it a bit with Jayson Werth out of the lineup due to hamstring tightness, placing Matt den Dekker in the leadoff spot and pushing Taylor down in the order.

Would Baker consider moving Anthony Rendon to the lead-off spot or even Werth? Maybe.

Werth has hit No. 5 or No. 6 in the lineup for all of his 13 games this season. In his career, he has played 102 games (95 starts) in the lead-off spot. His slash line there is solid at .278/.363/.452.

Rendon has made 36 starts as the lead-off man and slashed .260/.323/.384 in 164 plate appearances.

The Nationals have options at that lead-off spot. It remains to be seen if Baker will change up his philosophy or try to get Taylor going at the plate with a little more than three weeks remaining before Revere returns.