The Pirates Need to Shut Down Jameson Taillon

The Pittsburgh Pirates need to shut down Jameson Taillon for the rest of the 2017 season

The 2017 season has been one Jameson Taillon will never forget. On top of it being his first full season on a Major League roster, he has also been through personal hell this season due to his diagnosis and then treatment for testicular cancer.

Through all of this, Taillon has made 22 starts for the Pirates and has pitched 116 2/3 innings. He owns a strong 3.46 FIP and his 2.5 fWAR is second on the team among starting pitchers behind Gerrit Cole. However, the Pirates need to shut Taillon down for the season’s final three weeks.

Jameson Taillon has been insanely inconsistent his past nine starts. In these nine starts he owns a 7.63 ERA, largely due to allowing at least four earned runs in five of the starts. However, in the other four starts he has allowed a total of just five earned runs. This has led to him owning a 3.96 FIP in these nine starts.

During this nine start stretch it has been obvious something is bothering Taillon. His location has been off and he has allowed far too much hard contact. He has watched his walk rate spike to 3.92 BB/9 while allowing hard contact 30.9 percent of the time, neither of which are Taillon like, in these starts.

It could be fatigue, it could be mental exhaustion, or it just could be the league adjusting to Taillon. Regardless, right now, the team’s best course of action is to shut him down for the remainder of the season because continuing to trot him out there is not doing him or the Pirates any good.

Another reason to shut down Taillon is to make room for Tyler Glasnow. Since being sent back to the minor leagues in June Glasnow absolutely dominated Triple-A. He averaged 13.50 K/9 while posting a 1.93 ERA and a 2.23 FIP in 93 1/3 Triple-A innings pitched. He then allowed just a solo home run while striking out nine in six innings pitched in his lone postseason start.

Tyler Glasnow has done more than enough to earn another shot in the Major Leagues. If he can show that the changes he has made at Triple-A translate to the Major Leagues then he is in contention to start the 2018 season in the Pirate rotation.

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Despite him struggling to the finish this season Jameson Taillon is a very talented pitcher with a big future ahead of him. The Pirates will look to Taillon to anchor their start rotation for, at least, the next five seasons. However, right now, their best course of action is to shut Taillon down for the remainder of the season.