Chris Taylor has posted strong spring training numbers, but he doesn’t put a lot of stock into them,
Former Cox High star ‘ramping up’ for season
Successful springs don’t make for successful seasons, nor are vernal struggles a harbinger of an awful summer.
At least that’s been Chris Taylor’s experience.
A super utilityman for the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, Taylor entered Thursday batting .419 with four home runs and 12 RBIs through 12 Cactus League games.
But the numbers mean little to the 30-year-old Virginia Beach native, who prefers to let his body judge his springs.
“I feel great,” Taylor said from Glendale, Arizona. “Spring training’s weird. It lets you know where you are heading into the season. Just because you have a great spring training doesn’t mean you’re going to have a great start to the season or anything like that. But so far, everything’s very encouraging.”
Taylor, a former star at Cox High and the University of Virginia, hit .270 with eight homers and 32 RBIs over 56 games in 2020’s truncated season.
A career .263 hitter in seven major league seasons, Taylor has made himself valuable to the Dodgers by playing all over the field.
He’s also turned it on when the games matter most. He has played in three World Series, homering twice. He’s homered five times in 11 career postseason series.
Conversely, preseason production isn’t anything to worry about.
“I try not to look at the numbers too much in the spring because it’s such a small sample size,” Taylor said. “I think it’s really more about getting live at-bats and getting in some game action and getting comfortable and kind of ramping up and getting ready for the start of the season.”