Pittsburgh Pirates: The Three Gifts That Will Keep on Giving in 2019

The first player that should keep on giving in 2019 is Jameson Taillon.  Taillon has had one of the toughest career tracks in baseball between bouncing back from Tommy-John Surgery and then overcoming Testicular Cancer.  However, the former number two overall pick has not been deterred.

While Taillon has not developed as fast as many had hoped he would, last year he finally “broke out.”   His quality of pitches has always been there, Pittsburgh Pirates fans saw that back in 2013 when he was pitching for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic as a 21-year-old.  However, last year he really figured out how to put it all together.

The year did not start off all that great for the big Texas right-hander.  His ERA through May was north of 4.00 between the two months.  But then something changed in Taillon. Well, not so much something, but he added a new pitch, a slider.  This led to him posting ERA’s under 3.00 in three out of the four remaining months, with his July ERA being just over at 3.22.  All in all, Taillon pitched to a 3.20 ERA and a 3.7 WAR.  The best part of it all is that he just turned 27 and should be entering his true prime for the 2019 season.