A couple of days after the lockout started in December 2021, Mike Tauchman weighed the route of his baseball profession.
He acquired a suggestion to play abroad and with out having any concrete choices at that time from a big-league group, Tauchman evaluated the chance to go to the Korea Baseball Organization for the 2022 season. He realized, although, it actually wasn’t that onerous of a choice to go away.
But when Tauchman signed with the Hanwha Eagles, it got here with the understanding he won’t play in Major League Baseball once more.
“That was something I was OK with,” Tauchman advised the Tribune on Saturday.
Tauchman’s time within the KBO in the end led the 32-year-old outfielder to the Chicago Cubs, and he has grow to be an necessary piece on a surging group. The Palatine native’s journey again the the large leagues won’t have come to fruition with out Tauchman’s 12 months in South Korea. It got here on the heels of a troublesome 2021 season that started with a commerce from the New York Yankees to the San Francisco Giants one month in and ended with a 56 OPS+ over 75 video games.
His season in Korea supplied a optimistic expertise and “a new world” for Tauchman and his spouse, Eileen. Most importantly, on the baseball facet, taking part in within the KBO gave him a wanted reset at the same time as he navigated the inherent challenges that include the language barrier.
“There were some things from the mental side that I was struggling with over here, just in terms of confidence and reliance and different things like that,” Tauchman stated. “And over there, you’re kind of on your own, to an extent, and you’re also expected to play every single day, so that was something that I looked forward to. A year of you’ve just got to figure it out on your own, you’ve got to manage things on your own and the only person you truly, truly rely on is yourself. But that was good for me.”
When the Cubs introduced an opportunity to return again to the U.S. via a minor-league contract with a big-league camp invite he signed in January, Tauchman didn’t go into this season with excessive expectations that it could lead him again to the majors. The draw of taking part in near household, even when he was at Triple-A Iowa, made the Cubs’ provide interesting regardless.
“Unfortunately, the reality is that, at times, results aren’t the only determining factor on how things work at this level,” Tauchman stated. “There’s clearly a enterprise element and different parts, so to get the chance, I used to be simply extraordinarily grateful for it and simply attempt to take pleasure in it. That psychological reset helped in that approach.
“I definitely feel more relaxed than 2020-21, which were challenging years with the pandemic stuff, getting traded in early in the season and really struggling and feeling just not myself.”
Cody Bellinger’s knee damage sustained in mid May and subsequent time on the injured listing opened the door for Tauchman, who bought off to an incredible begin in his first month at Triple A to earn the promotion. Since then, Tauchman has grow to be a stabilizing possibility when hitting leadoff — .276/.351/.474 slash line in 27 begins in that spot — and given supervisor David Ross extra defensive flexibility with how he builds the Cubs’ day by day lineup.
“At points in my career, I would put greater importance on every single at-bat than maybe there needed to be and it’s something you might do as a young player because you want to maximize every opportunity you have and you feel like if you don’t, nobody’s going to think you’re any good,” Tauchman stated. “But perhaps with the passage of time or getting older or simply completely different experiences, it’s, like, you’ve had hundreds of at-bats in your life and a few go effectively, some don’t, and it has no bearing on the following one.
“That’s something that I’ve tried to keep perspective on this year because hitting in the big leagues is really hard. It’s really hard. And some days pitchers just out execute you and there’s little you can do about it. So I’m just trying to keep perspective that way.”
Tauchman’s game-ending house run theft Friday night time to beat the St. Louis Cardinals sealed the Cubs’ largest win of the season. Within the clubhouse, the way in which Tauchman has made essentially the most of his major-league return has not gone unnoticed even earlier than his excellent play.
“I have a lot of belief in guys like that that just keep going,” second baseman Nico Hoerner stated. “He’s going to embrace whatever role he has and he’s got a really big one for us.”
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com