Phillies Expect Young Catcher Eduardo Tait’s Power To Play
It’s easy to forget that Eduardo Tait is 17 years old.
The young Panamanian catcher stands 6 feet with a listed weight of 175 pounds. The lefthanded batter hits for titanic power.
Last year, in his first pro season, Tait put up a .917 OPS in 44 Dominican Summer League games. In the Florida Complex League this year, he hit .321/.377/.500 with six home runs in 51 games.
The Phillies promoted him to Low-A Clearwater on July 25.
“The first thing I’d say is he’s very strong,” Phillies assistant farm director Preston Mattingly said. “He’s one of the stronger guys, when you factor in age, in our organization.
“And then I think secondly, the way his swing works, it’s kind of naturally geared to hit balls in the air. And that allows him to get to some power.
“I think it’s just part of his profile . . . We’d prefer for all of his hard-hit balls to be in the air, because that’s going to be his profile, in general . . . So his swing generates pretty good loft.”
That power has been there for awhile. What has impressed Mattingly is Tait’s improved bat-to-ball ability. He struck out at a lower rate in the FCL this year than he had in the DSL.
“We knew he needed to control the zone a little bit more,” Mattingly said. “I think he was a guy who swung a lot at everything, because he could hit everything. So, it was just educating him on what pitches to swing at, when to take more chances to hit for power.
“Just understanding how pitchers are trying to pitch to him has helped.”
Tait signed for $90,000 in 2023 and was young for his international class, which means he has also been young for his minor leagues.
“I’ve never had a 17-year-old in Low-A ever before,” Mattingly said. “He would be a junior in high school. So you think, ‘This guy needs to get better at this.’ But he’s like four years younger than the entire league.”
