There comes a time in every baseball player’s life to hang up their bat, glove, and cleats. For some, it comes early when they struggle in Little League and decide to pursue other interests. For others, the time comes at higher levels of the sport – travel ball, high school, college, or the professional minor leagues. At the elite level of MLB the time may be as short as the metaphorical cup of coffee, or after 20+ years.
Some players, like Hall of Fame left-hander Sandy Koufax, know the time to end their baseball careers and leave the sport while at the top of their game. Others stubbornly hang on even though their level of play is no longer MLB quality. Professional sports are cruel that way. Opposing teams take advantage of those players who can no longer play at the required level. They punish the pitchers with consistent high exit velocities and make hitters easy outs to end innings.
Dodgers fans have long embraced Chris Taylor, CT3, from the time he was acquired from the Seattle Mariners. He tripled in his first game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 27, 2016 and two weeks later had five hits in ten plate appearances against the Arizona Diamondbacks: two singles, a double, a triple, and a home run, with three runs scored, and six RBI. The Dodgers had stolen Taylor from the Mariners for the once-promising right-handed pitcher Zach Lee, to which fans were ecstatic.
Over the next five seasons CT3 played All Star-level baseball for the team, earning a four year/$60M contract extension following the 2021 season. Regrettably, his offensive performance regressed; his strike-out rate increased, and his wRC+ (Fangraphs metric) plunged well below Major League standards. He changed his swing to increase the launch angle and there were injuries that he played through to help the team.
Taylor is in the final year of his current contract ($15M AAV) and has been relegated to a defensive replacement or a pinch runner, with an occasional starting assignment. He is striking out 40% of the time and his wRC+ is 10, which is 90 percentage points below the Major League average. He will be 35 on August 29 and it is very unlikely that the team will exercise their $12M team option for 2026.
(SportsNet LA)
In all likelihood, the team will soon put Taylor on release waivers to make room on the active roster for a player who will add more value in the team’s pursuit of the 2025 World Championship. Baseball is a terrific game but is a tough and unforgiving business.
Perhaps Taylor will make the difficult decision to go out on his own terms, hang it up, and retire as a Dodger. This time comes for every player. Is it CT3’s time?
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