The Atlanta Braves have tried nearly everything in the outfield this season, but they may need to keep trying.
After superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. went down with an ACL tear in late May, the Braves have cycled in retreads from all over baseball in an attempt to field a competent outfield. But no formula has produced the right combination of offense and defense to this point.
With Jorge Soler returning from a hamstring injury to occupy right field, the Braves have a huge defensive liability on their hands. But one potential solution is to bring in a waiver-wire outfielder who can cover all sorts of ground to make up for Soler's shortcomings.
Michael A. Taylor, who was waived by the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, may make sense for the Braves as a low-cost rental pickup. If Taylor goes unclaimed in the next 48 hours, he has the option to become a free agent while still retaining his full Pirates salary.
Taylor, 33, is primarily a defensive weapon in 2024. A Gold Glove center fielder in 2021, he still plays elite defense at all three outfield positions, but is having a career-worst year at the plate, hitting to a brutal 53 OPS+.
Any team that claims Taylor would assume the remaining $790,000 on his contract for the rest of the season, which is somewhat meaningless to a Braves team nearly $50 million over the luxury tax threshold. The bigger concern is whether Taylor falls to Atlanta in the waiver order.
Taylor may not provide much offense at this stage of his career, but the same could be said of players like Adam Duvall and Gio Urshela, who still have prominent roles on the Atlanta roster. And compared to Duvall and Ramon Laureano, Taylor is clearly the superior defender.
So would defense, baserunning, and a little bit of lefty platoon time be enough to carve out a role for Taylor on this Braves team at the end of this season? It's a tough call, but that's why Alex Anthopoulos gets paid the big bucks.
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