Each the Yankees and Crimson Sox have checked in with the Cubs and mentioned the potential availability of right-hander Jameson Taillon, USA At the moment’s Bob Nightengale writes in his weekly Sunday Notes column. The Cubs have but to find out whether or not they’ll off any veteran items previous to the deadline, per the report. Nonetheless, Chicago has dropped consecutive video games popping out of the All-Star break and now sits 10 again within the NL Central and 4.5 again within the Wild Card chase, so it’d hardly register as a shock in the event that they have been not less than getting a really feel for the market on a few of their potential commerce belongings.
The 32-year-old Taillon (33 in November) is within the second season of a four-year, $68MM contract he inked with the Cubs within the 2022-23 offseason. After a really rocky exhibiting final Might and June, he’s righted the ship. Taillon is sitting on a pristine 3.10 ERA (3.81 FIP, 4.18 SIERA) in 93 innings this season, however his turnaround actually dates again to the second half of the ’23 season. Although he completed out his first Cubs season with an ERA simply shy of 5.00, that brutal stretch in Might/June closely weighed down his season-long line.
Over the previous calendar 12 months, Taillon boasts a tidy 3.34 ERA (4.05 FIP, 4.11 SIERA) with a 21.1% strikeout charge that’s solely a few share level shy of league-average and an excellent 5.1% stroll charge. That stroll charge is the Eleventh-lowest amongst certified starters within the majors.
Taillon remains to be owed about $6.8MM of his 2024 wage as of this writing. He’s additionally being paid $18MM in every of the subsequent two seasons. That’ll deliver the tab on him to a bit lower than $43MM over the subsequent two-plus seasons. On its face, that’s a typically affordable charge for a pitcher of Taillon’s caliber.
Nonetheless, it’s additionally value noting that the Yankees are a third-time CBT payor who’re within the prime tier of luxurious penalization. They’d pay a 110% tax on Taillon, not less than this season and presumably in future seasons, relying the place their luxurious ledger lands in 2025-26. Boston presently has a projected $218MM value of luxurious concerns, per RosterResource, so they may purchase Taillon and tackle his full contract with out crossing into luxurious territory this season. As for the Cubs, they’re simply $3MM shy of the $237MM luxurious threshold; transferring Taillon would create some respiration room within the occasion that the entrance workplace opts to deal from its rotation depth however concurrently usher in another gamers to handle wants (e.g. third base, bullpen).
So far as the Crimson Sox go, the reported curiosity in Taillon is fairly easy. Boston has seen Lucas Giolito, Garrett Whitlock and depth starter Chris Murphy go down with season-ending accidents. Righty Bryan Mata lately had one other setback in his restoration from a hamstring damage. For the time being, the Sox have a rotation comprised of Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Nick Pivetta and Brayan Bello. Each Cooper Criswell and Josh Winckowski have gotten appears within the fifth spot of the rotation. The depth past that quintet is pretty suspect.
The present prime 4 in Boston’s rotation is stable, however each Houck and Crawford are going to sail properly past their 2023 workloads as they set new career-high marks for innings pitched. Even when they keep away from damage whereas doing so, there’s actual risk of fatigue setting in and impacting the standard of their outcomes (which have up to now been glorious). Taillon would add some stability and push Criswell and Wincowski down the depth chart. He’d additionally add a stable veteran arm to the 2025-26 rotations, which certainly has some attraction with Pivetta slated to grow to be a free agent this offseason.
The Crimson Sox presently maintain the third Wild Card spot within the American League. They’re an extended shot throughout the AL East however actually not buried, sitting 6.5 video games behind the division-leading Orioles and 4.5 video games behind the second-place Yankees.
Talking of the Yankees, they’re in fact no stranger to Taillon. The righty pitched the 2021-22 seasons within the Bronx and fared properly, logging 321 1/3 innings of 4.08 ERA ball over the lifetime of 61 begins. The Yankees have a principally wholesome rotation now that Gerrit Cole is again from the elbow damage that sidelined him into June, however they did lose breakout righty Clarke Schmidt to a late-Might lat pressure that’s going to sideline him for a substantial interval. The Yankees introduced on Might 30 that Schmidt could be shut down as much as six weeks. He was transferred to the 60-day IL on June 18. He’s out till not less than the top of this month, however that’ll possible stretch into subsequent month. Schmidt solely started throwing off a mound this weekend, and he’ll have to make a number of minor league rehab begins (and dodge any attainable setbacks) earlier than he’s an possibility.
Proper now, supervisor Aaron Boone’s rotation contains Cole, Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman and Luis Gil. It’s a gifted quintet, however Gil has pale significantly after posting a sub-2.00 ERA for the primary couple months of the season. His sky-high stroll charge at all times made his ERA a bit doubtful, however over the previous seven begins Gil has pitched to a 6.00 ERA. He’s not the one Yankee starter struggling, both. Every of Rodon, Cortes and Stroman has an ERA north of 5.30 prior to now month. Rodon has been clobbered for twenty-four runs in his previous 22 innings. If something, Gil has begun to proper the ship with a pair of fantastic begins his final two instances out, nevertheless it’s lots comprehensible if his workload considerations and the widely shaky efficiency from the remainder of his rotationmates has the Yankees looking for exterior assist.
