Pittsburgh Pirates: Recapping Where Recently Traded Players Are Now

Jameson Taillon

Jameson Taillon has had a rough go of things during his professional career. Tommy John surgery in 2014 pushed his debut back to 2016. After coming off what looked to be a breakout campaign in 2018, he would have to undergo a second Tommy John surgery in 2019. He only pitched 37.1 innings before getting hurt in 2019 and didn’t pitch a single game in 2020.

Despite that, Taillon fetched the Pittsburgh Pirates a four-prospect package, which now includes one of the organization’s best prospects in Roansy Contreras, as well as another potential rotation building block in Miguel Yajure and highly touted infielder Maikol Escotto. Taillon faced injuries once again in 2021, tossing only 144.1 innings. All told, he had a 4.30 ERA, 4.43 FIP, and 1.21 WHIP. He had a near-exact league average 23.2% strikeout rate but a quality 7.3% walk rate. However, he surrendered home runs at a 1.5-per-9 pace.

Taillon was league average in nearly every single measurement. He had a 100 ERA+ and ERA-, a 102 FIP-, 109 xFIP-, and had two fWAR on the dot. But the constant string of injuries didn’t end after 2021. Taillon had to undergo ankle surgery, though he looks healthy now and pitched 5.2 innings in Spring Training. He’ll open the season with Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Nestor Cortes, and Jordan Montgomery in the Yankee rotation.