Every Team's Most Interesting Player: New York Yankees, Mike Tauchman

This is the 19th in a series of articles about the most interesting player for fantasy owners on each team heading into the 2020 season. We are going alphabetically, so today we’re going to talk about Mike Tauchman of the New York Yankees.

Tauchman, 29, came out of nowhere last season while the Yankees got plowed with injuries to play a vital role for the 103-game winning AL East champions. He appeared in 87 games, slashing .277/.361/.504 with 13 homers, 47 RBI and six stolen bases. While Tauchman is pretty old for a breakout, he’s put up impressive numbers in his minor league career that we should pay attention to.

In the minors, Tauchman has stolen 20 or more bases three different times, and in his most recent extended minor league season belted 20 home runs with 12 stolen bases and a .323 average with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate. In his last two full Triple-A seasons, Tauchman hit 36 home runs registered 30 steals. It’s unclear why it has taken Tauchman so long to hit the bigs full-time, but he is a proven commodity at the lower levels.

Tauchman was dreadful in his first two cracks at MLB pitching, but everything clicked in 2019 for him. He limited soft contact to 15.3%, and benefitted from a 20.6% home run to fly ball ratio, which is fortunate, but not unexpected given his home park is Yankee Stadium. He also drastically lowered his ground ball rate, which was 64.7% in 2017 and 2018 to 41.8% in 2019. Tauchman was also disciplined at the plate – he posted a low 22.8% swing rate on pitches outside the zone – and he made a ton of contact, with a very low 8.5% swinging strike rate.

The primary issue for Tauchman, despite his advanced age, isn’t going to be skill or production when he plays. Playing time may be Tauchman’s enemy. The Yankees are without Aaron Hicks to start the season, and he is currently projected to hit eighth and play left field. Batting eighth isn’t ideal, but the Yankees’ monster lineup makes that a relative non-factor. Clint Frazier on the bench is a bigger issue; he is a far bigger prospect whom fans are eager to see in a bigger role. Frazier was acquired for Andrew Miller, a major name at the time, and the Yankees have a larger investment in him. Still, Frazier was a disastrous defender in 2019, giving Tauchman the early leg up and the first crack to prove himself deserving of the everyday role.

At his current ADP (No. 338) Tauchman is an afterthought in drafts. Fantasy owners right now are not recognizing that any decent hitter getting quality at-bats in this lineup is worth rostering, especially players with stolen base potential. The Yankees’ power hitters decrease the overall willingness of players to steal bases, but batting in the bottom third of the order should allow for more green lights. Maybe Hicks returns and crushes Tauchman’s value, but worry about that in August or September. Until then, take the flier.