Tyrone Taylor Shows Off Bat and Glove

Tyrone Taylor entered Tuesday with two extra-base hits in June. He matched that in his first two at-bats.

The center fielder blooped a double off Ronald Acuña’s glove in the second to drive in two runs in the second inning and homered to left on an 0-2 pitch from Spencer Schwellenbach in the fifth to give the Mets a 4-1 lead. The Braves rallied for three runs to tie it in the eighth and walked it off in the 10th, sending New York (45-27) to its fourth straight loss.

Taylor finished 2-for-3 to boost his slash line to .236/.300/.351. The 31-year-old has been slumping this month (8-for-38) and hadn’t had a two-hit game since May 23. He has two homers, 15 RBIs and eight steals. Most of his value, of course, comes from his glove.

He entered Tuesday fifth in fielding run value for center fielders, per Baseball Savant. He has four defensive runs saved and is in the 92nd percentile for range and 97th for arm value. He showed off the range on the game’s final play, running from shallow center to the warning track to make a spectacular-yet-meaningless one-handed running catch of Austin Riley‘s sacrifice fly.

He’s made a few highlight reel catches this season that counted, too, including one last Thursday to save a run against the Nationals in a 4-3 Mets victory.

“As soon as the ball was hit, and looking at Taylor and (Juan) Soto and how far both of them were, I thought it was at least a double,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “And then as (Taylor) keeps closing the gap, and for him to make that spectacular play, diving like that, it’s not the first time we have seen that. It goes to show you, he’s elite out there.”

Taylor has appeared in 65 games, with Mendoza also using Jeff McNeil in center to give the offense a lift. If Taylor can keep hitting, though, he could see more playing time.

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