Revisiting the Chris Taylor vs. Brad Miller Debate

Shortstop has been a difficult position for most fantasy owners this season. As of earlier today, after Hanley Ramirez the top four in Yahoo!’s actual production ranks have been Adeiny Hechavarria, Zack Cozart, Marcus Semien, and Brandon Crawford. While I am very fond of Semien and think Crawford has made notable improvements, this is not exactly the glowing age for fantasy shortstops.

Prior to the start of the season, one player I was keeping a close eye on was Chris Taylor. Being stuck in a position battle with Brad Miller made him a questionable target, but I had confidence that he would beat him out in what the Mariners were calling a true competition at shortstop – with the loser heading down to triple-A Tacoma to continue to get plate appearances. Unfortunately, Taylor broke his wrist in spring training and Miller was given the starting spot by default.

Now, Taylor has been hitting very well at triple-A and the Mariners are reportedly calling him back up to the bigs. This is not the ideal situation for adding Taylor, as Miller is still on the major league roster as well and essentially performing as expected – with a .250/.301/.382 line compared to ZiPS projection of .249/.308/.382. Even so, the Mariners are pretty starved for offense and Taylor may force himself into the lineup as a speed and batting average booster.

In triple-A thus far, Taylor has hit two homers and stolen six bases. He performed well in the majors last year and has shown very good bat control throughout his professional career as he continually posts extraordinary BABIP’s at each level. While that is certainly a reason to be cautionary around Taylor, it gives me a bit more confidence that his 103 wRC+ from last season is entirely due to the small sample of 151 plate appearances.

As mentioned earlier, Miller has not exactly been bad, he just has not been good either. He has been slightly above replacement level overall. Conversely, in last year’s 41 games played, Taylor was a 1.2 win player. Miller possess more power than Taylor but is less as good in terms of on base skills. While offense is offense, the Mariners are 26th in on base percentage and could use the type of player like Taylor to provide a spark to their offense.

Having already liked Taylor over Miller, so far this year Miller has been exactly as projected and Taylor looks to have made some strides at triple-A. Comparatively, he has a lower strikeout rate and a higher walk rate this year, which is the only noticeable difference between his 346 plate appearances last year as this year.

I wish there were more to point to in terms of Taylor’s short stint in the minors this year and Miller’s performance so far, but the question comes down to how much you need a shortstop or middle infielder, what qualities you are looking for from the middle infielder, and whether you think Taylor is the superior option to Miller. If the M’s do give Taylor the job, getting the type of production you hoped to receive from Elvis Andrus is a realistic expectation, and if you need production from shortstop quickly and desperately, picking up Taylor now is advisable.