page_title: Oscar Taveras
section_title: St. Louis Cardinals (2014)
hierarchical_section_title: Oscar Taveras / Professional career / St. Louis Cardinals (2014)
caption_attribution_description: English: Oscar Taveras, St.Louis Cardinals rightfielder.
context_page_description: Oscar Francisco Taveras was a Dominican–Canadian professional baseball outfielder who played one season for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball. Known as "El Fenómeno" in the Dominican Republic, the Cardinals signed him at age 16 in 2008 as an international amateur free agent and he made his MLB debut in 2014. Over six minor league seasons, he batted .321 with a .519 slugging percentage. He played all three outfield positions while spending most of the time in center field.
  With prodigious batting skills, Taveras was a consensus top-five minor league prospect in 2013 and 2014. He elicited comparisons to former MLB outfielder and fellow Dominican Vladimir Guerrero—with a powerful and smooth, balanced stroke, Taveras successfully hit pitches well outside of the strike zone. Also similar to Guerrero, he possessed a strong and accurate throwing arm. The outfielder was the recipient of a litany of awards and won batting titles in two minor leagues, including hitting .386 for the Midwest League title in 2011. The next year, he won the Texas League batting title and was the Texas League Player of the Year and Cardinals organization Player of the Year.
context_section_description: Beginning in the 2014 season, MLB.com ranked Taveras as the second-best prospect in all of MLB, behind only Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins organization. The Cardinals invited him to spring training. Although team officials believed that his ankle had fully healed in time for 2014 spring training, he hesitated to fully trust the ankle in performance. A hamstring injury followed, limiting him to just six at-bats. The Cardinals optioned him to minor league camp on March 14.
  On May 30, 2014, the Cardinals called Taveras up to their MLB roster in one of the most anticipated promotions in all MLB. He became the first from Sosúa to reach the major leagues. At that point, he had been batting .325 with a .373 OBP and a .524 SLG at Memphis. Other totals included seven HR and 40 RBI in 49 games and 191 at-bats. Taveras was held hitless in consecutive games just once. In his last 10 games, he collected hits in all but one, batting .462. During those same 10 games, he fashioned two three-hit games and one four-hit outing. In 209 plate appearances, he walked just 14 times, but also struck out just 25 for a 12.1% strikeout rate.
  Making his MLB debut at Busch Stadium on the afternoon of Saturday, May 31, against the San Francisco Giants, Taveras flied out in his first at-bat. However, he launched his first hit and home run, which traveled 418 feet (127 m), in his next at-bat. It occurred with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning against starting pitcher Yusmeiro Petit. He became the youngest to hit a home run in his major league debut for the Cardinals since Eddie Morgan in 1936. It also started to rain, immediately forcing a 47-minute delay. The home run proved to be the game-winning run as the Cardinals won, 2–0.
  Taveras hit his first MLB single the next day, June 1. When Matt Adams came off the DL June 19, Taveras' 22nd birthday, the Cardinals optioned him back to Memphis after batting .189 with a .225 OBP and .297 SLG in 40 PA. Despite the low rate statistics, he showed a marked ability to get contact on MLB pitching. His contact rate of 92.3% on pitches outside of the strike zone surpassed the MLB average of 65.7% for all non-pitchers. His miss rate of 2.5% on swinging strikes was significantly lower than the MLB average of 9.1%.
  One month after his first call-up, the Cardinals recalled Taveras on June 30. He was batting .318 with a .502 SLG at Memphis. To allow him more playing opportunities, the Cardinals traded slumping incumbent right fielder Allen Craig to the Boston Red Sox on the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. His first career three-hit game was on September 7 against the Milwaukee Brewers. That series, he played three of the four games, collecting five hits in eight at-bats with a home run and four RBI. It was one of eight multi-hit games on the year. Taveras finished the 2014 season with a batting average of .239 in 80 major league games. He appeared on the postseason roster for the Cardinals, playing exclusively as a pinch hitter, and collected three hits and two runs scored in seven total at bats. His postseason debut was in the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. One hit was a home run that tied the score in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the Giants, the only game the Cardinals won in the series; as it turned out, it was the final hit in his career. His final tweet was "Thanks for all the fan support!" on October 13.
caption: Taveras playing for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2014
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