Under The Radar

The Zach Lee-Christ Taylor trade with the Seattle Mariners on June 19 was one of those innocuous deals that really did not mean much at the time. The Los Angeles Dodgers needed organizational depth in the middle infield and Chris Taylor had made brief appearances with the Seattle Mariners in 2014 and 2015 with three at bats in 2016. He has made appearances at second base, shortstop, and third base. He was a fifth round draft pick by the Seattle Mariners out of the University of Virginia in 2012.

I would not have even noticed the trade if Zach Lee would not have been involved. He was a first round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of McKinney High School in Plano, Texas in 2010. The Dodgers gave him a large signing bonus at the last minute to keep him from attending LSU and competing for the quarterback job for their football team. This trade was the Dodgers throwing in the towel on Zach Lee. This was his third season in AAA and his sixth season in the Dodgers organization. He has had an up-and-down minor league career and only made one career start for the Dodgers in 2015 and Lee could never seem to put his talent together enough to make that jump to the majors.

Chris Taylor was originally sent to the Dodgers AAA affiliate Oklahoma City but only spent three games there as he was called up to replace the injured Enrique Hernandez on the Dodgers roster. Another injury, this time to outfielder Trayce Thompson, put Taylor into the starting lineup at second base against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first game back from the All Star break. Taylor fell a single shy of hitting for the cycle. His two run triple in the fourth inning gave the Dodgers the lead and his sixth inning grand slam put the game away for the Dodgers and it gave Taylor a career high six runs batted in, The grand slam was also his first career homerun and cemented a place for him in Dodgers history as he became only the third player in Dodgers history whose first homerun was a grand slam.