Breaking down Joseph Tailor's incredible (and incredibly strange) 2024 season

[Ely Sussman]

The 18-year-old Marlins infielder took a massive leap offensively in his second Dominican Summer League season, though some of that production was seemingly outside of his control.

The Miami Marlins spread their money around among international amateur free agents entering the 2023 signing period. No player's signing bonus exceeded $1M, but more than a dozen received six figures. Two of those investments have aged especially well: Venezuelan outfielder Andrés Valor ($520k), who is a consensus Top 30 prospect in this organization, and Dominican left-hander Keyner Benitez ($225k), who soon will be. Both Valor and Benitez have already come over to the U.S. and excelled against older competition.

Then there's the curious case of $400k man Joseph Tailor.

Tailor made his professional debut with DSL Miami in 2023 and stumbled out of the starting gate. Splitting time between second base and third base, he committed six errors in his first five games. It took nearly two months for his batting average to rise above the Mendoza Line. The native of San Pedro de Macoris in the DR made significant improvements late in the summer, particularly in terms of trimming of his strikeout rate, but his overall numbers still underwhelmed: .237/.312/.309 slash line (72 wRC+) in 42 games. Unsurprisingly, the Marlins determined that he needed to spend another year at their Dominican academy.

Repeating the DSL as an 18-year-old, Tailor's consistency was astounding. His 153 wRC+ this season led all qualified hitters in the Marlins organization, regardless of level. He was selected to represent the Fish at the Dominican Summer League All-Star Game and performed even better during the post-All-Star portion of the season. Tailor's 23 extra-base hits ranked seventh in the DSL—keep in mind, this is a league with 51 different teams!

Tailor's contributions helped DSL Marlins clinch the DSL East division title. He served as the leadoff hitter during their brief playoff run which ended on Saturday.

A source within Marlins player development tells Fish On First that Tailor's swing "got better in each and every month last year and has been well-rounded consistent this year. He’s an aggressive hitter by nature as that will lead to some chase and some swing-and-miss on fastballs, which is our biggest concern, but even then he’s one of the hitters that has some strong potential."

The samples are microscopic, but the left-handed-hitting Tailor fared poorly against lefties in 2023 (.120/.185/.120 slash line in 27 PA), then crushed them in 2024 (.289/.434/.546 in 29 PA).

Also, Tailor's defense "improved immensely" from year to year, the source added. His most likely long-term home is second base.

Here are a couple angles of Tailor at the plate (the first clip is a home run and the second clip is a triple). Find more highlights of Tailor from FOF farm director Alex Carver, who advocated for him throughout this past season.

What made Tailor's season so strange? His extreme frequency of hit-by-pitches.

Opponents plunked Tailor 23 times in only 49 regular season games. He never had a streak longer than five games without taking one for the team. As you might expect, HBP rates in the DSL are higher than other MiLB levels considering how many inexperienced pitchers lack control. Even so, Tailor distinguished himself from his peers in this category. He had nearly twice as many HBPs as any other DSL Miami/Marlins player (INF Breyias Dean had 12). No other hitter in the entire league topped 18 (I'll remind you again, it's a 51-team league).

This statistical quirk has no precedent in Marlins minor league history. Across 31 years of Marlins affiliated ball, Tailor's HBP total in 2024 ranks tied for third. The only guys ahead of him, 1998 Alex Melconian (28 HBP) and 2019 Thomas Jones (24 HBP), played well over 100 games at full-season levels. Tailor is tied with 2017 Jarett Rindfleisch, who played 89 games.

Tailor's HBP habit came out of nowhere. He was hit by only three pitches in 2023. Let's pretend that was the case again this season and the extra 20 HBP plate appearances never happened—that would have lowered his on-base percentage from .419 to .360. For context, the league-wide OBP in the DSL was .365. It would have been a noteworthy season regardless (wRC+ in the high 120s or low 130s), but the question of whether or not Tailor will be such a ball magnet moving forward has a legitimate impact on his future outlook.

Expect some regression from Tailor on balls in play as well. His .362 BABIP will be hard to maintain as he faces higher quality fielders in the U.S.

As detailed above, 2024 was Tailor's second trip through the DSL. That in itself suggests his stats shouldn't be weighed too heavily. Position players who spend more than one season in a foreign rookie league seldom taste the majors. The only Marlins player this year who falls into that category is Jhonny Pereda, their afterthought third-string catcher.

I'm eager to see how Tailor does in the 2025 Florida Complex League.

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