The disconnect here is this: Taveras' OBP is bad enough that he wouldn't help the club. It's so bad that he'll actually hurt the club.
Walks are constants much more than hits. You get season to season variation in hits whereas you won't see as much variation in walks. The ideal leadoff hitter needs to be walking once every 10 PAs. Taveras only walks once every 19 PAs. That's a massive discrepancy.