This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers' Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Summer clouds and hints of stormy skies led Andrew Benintendi to point upward and twirl his finger around in the fifth inning last Friday against the Orioles, signaling to his teammates that he might need some help if a ball came toward him and he lost it in the lights.

Michael A. Taylor took note, and when Adley Rutschman hit a fly ball to Benintendi that inning, Taylor sprinted over. Sure enough, Benintendi lost the ball, and Taylor laid out for the diving play. Benintendi helped him up, thanking him for the assistance. Jonathan Heasley, the pitcher, raised his arms in thanks, too.

The Royals find themselves doing that a lot with Taylor.

“Ball goes up, basically in left field -- normally a guy will start making his way over there but not going like Michael was going,” manager Mike Matheny said. “He’s made us expect the unexpected. He just thrives on doing something outside of the ordinary.”

Taylor’s defense is the main reason why the Royals signed and extended the 31-year-old. Not only for those diving, highlight-reel plays -- remember when he robbed Andrew Knizner of a home run at Busch Stadium? -- but also for the plays he makes look routine. It’s harder to describe those, because Taylor makes the catch look effortless.

“That’s a big thing. People see the diving plays and kind of put a gold star by that, like, ‘Oh that guy’s so good because he made that diving play,’” Whit Merrifield said. “When in reality, MT is making that play look routine. It might not look like it, you might think someone else is better because he made a diving play, but it’s the same ball and MT is making it look easier.”

So yes, Taylor’s defense is still elite, which we’ve known. But the other reason the Royals wanted him? They thought there was more to unlock in his swing. And this season, he’s unlocking it.

Entering Monday’s series opener in San Francisco, Taylor was hitting .278 with a .784 OPS this season, which has also included a two-week-long stint on the COVID-19 related injured list. On Sunday against the Orioles, he hammered a ball to the opposite field -- over the fence in right -- for his fourth home run of the year.

Taylor has a 127 wRC+, which is third best on the Royals’ roster -- behind Edward Olivares’ 163 and MJ Melendez’s 129 -- and up from his 77 wRC+ last year. Taylor is also striking out less than he ever has, with a 19.6% strikeout rate, and walking more, too, with a 12.8% walk rate.

When asked about it, Taylor said he’s seeing the ball better and more consistently than he has before in his career, which allows him to make better decisions. He shortened his swing, too, with new pregame drills he added in Spring Training that have given him more time at the plate.

“The goal was to make more contact,” Taylor said. “I felt like I’d miss a lot of pitches, I’d foul a lot of balls off and put myself in a bad situation with two strikes, then I’m just battling from there. And that would lead to way more strikeouts than I wanted.”

The numbers support Taylor’s feeling. He’s swinging less (49% swing percentage) but making more contact (74% contact rate), and his contact on balls in the zone has significantly improved, up to 87.1% from 80.6% last year. That means he’s making better decisions on when to swing and what pitches to swing at -- leading to more production.

“We know he has power, and every once in a while, he’ll display it,” Matheny said. “It’s, like, big power. Surprising power. … We’ve known that there’s more in there, and I know he’s known that, too. He just wanted an opportunity to prove it. There are times, like right now, that he’s proving it. He’s a very well-rounded hitter.”