Mets’ Carlos Mendoza drops bright career projection for rising weapon after win vs Giants

The New York Mets picked up an 8-2 win over the San Francisco Giants on the road on Wednesday to salvage the last game of a three-game series, and while Francisco Lindor led the way with two home runs, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was thrilled to see outfielder Tyrone Taylor make an impact on the game as well.

“(Taylor) is going to be a huge part of this team moving forward,” Carlos Mendoza said, via ESPN. “I’m just happy that he’s having great results because he’s such a great guy, but he’s also a really good player.”

Tyrone Taylor went 2-for-5 on the day with a home run and a two-run double. The home run came off of Sean Hjelle in the fourth inning to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0. In the next inning, the Mets added three runs. The first two came on the Taylor double, which was hit into the right-center field gap off of Landen Roupp. Jeff McNeill added a single to bring home Taylor later in the inning to extend the lead to 6-0.

With the Mets leading 6-1 in the ninth inning, Francisco Lindor added his second home run of the day to make it 8-1, and New York closed it out by the score of 8-2 in the bottom of the inning.

What is Tyrone Taylor’s role with the Mets?

As Mendoza said, Taylor has played a key role for the Mets this season. He is not necessarily a starting outfielder, as the Mets can regularly run an outfield trio of Brandon Nimmo in left, Harrison Bader in center and Starling Marte in right. However, with how often someone like Marte might be put in the designated hitter role, Taylor will get plenty of playing time. That is what happened on Wednesday against the Giants.

Taylor has appeared in 18 games for the Mets this season, so he has a significant role given that they have played 24 games. In those games, Taylor is batting .327 with a .358 on-base percentage and two home runs, according to FanGraphs.

When the Mets got off to their rough 0-5 start, Mets fans were wondering why Taylor was getting playing time, especially in the first series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Now, the Mets are 13-11, which is not bad considering they started 0-5, and Taylor has been a valuable player to this point in the season for them.

This road trip was a tough one on paper for the Mets, but all things considered, they did not fare too bad. The Mets won two out of three at Dodger Stadium over the weekend, winning a series against one of the most talented teams in baseball. It would have been ideal to have won one more against the Giants, but considering the competition, a .500 road trip is something the team likely would have signed up for going into it.

The Mets will return home for a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals starting on Friday.