The Orioles are among the many groups which have expressed some curiosity in Cubs starter Jameson Taillon, stories Bruce Levine of 670 The Rating. USA At the moment’s Bob Nightengale related two different AL East groups — the Yankees and Purple Sox — to Taillon over the weekend.
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer admitted not too long ago that the entrance workplace was prioritizing subsequent season and past in its deadline dealings. That roughly guidelines them out of the bidding on impending free brokers and suggests they’re open to gives on their leases. It doesn’t imply they’re planning to aggressively market gamers below contract or staff management past this season.
Taillon is below contract via 2026. The Cubs may actually maintain him even when they’re conceding it’s unlikely they’ll make a playoff run this season. The veteran righty is about to make $18MM in every of the following two years, although, so Chicago may desire to dump that dedication and look to reallocate the cash to different areas of the roster subsequent offseason.
Getting out from the Taillon contract appeared unlikely just some months in the past. His first season within the Windy Metropolis wasn’t nice, as he struggled to a 4.84 earned run common via 154 1/3 innings. His run prevention has improved right here in 2024, along with his ERA all the way down to 2.96.
His underlying charge stats haven’t modified as drastically, nevertheless. He had a 21.4% strikeout charge and 6.3% stroll charge final yr, with these figures at 19.1% and 5.1% in 2024. He’s allowed fewer dwelling runs and his batting common on balls in play has dropped from .292 to .275, serving to his strand charge climb from 64.6% to 76.4%. FIP, which credit pitchers for dwelling runs or the dearth thereof, has Taillon going from final yr’s 4.61 to this yr’s 3.77. However SIERA, which normalizes dwelling run charge, has given Taillon a lesser shift from final yr’s 4.34 to this yr’s 4.23.
Whether or not Taillon has vital modified from final yr or not, he has a monitor file of being an honest rotation stalwart. He now has over 1,000 innings in his profession with a 3.90 ERA, 21.4% strikeout charge, 5.9% stroll charge and 42.3% floor ball charge.
The Cubs may dangle onto him for the rest of that contract however there’s additionally logic in making him obtainable, because the long-term rotation image nonetheless appears to be like good even with out Taillon in it. They might go into subsequent season with Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks in 4 spots, with guys like Hayden Wesneski, Ben Brown and Caleb Kilian within the combine as properly. Cade Horton, the membership’s high prospect, is present coping with a subscapularis pressure however might be again on the mound later this yr and in line for his main league debut. Prospects like Brandon Birdsell and Connor Noland have additionally reached the Triple-A degree.
For the O’s, they’re tied with the Guardians for the very best file within the American League regardless of some rotation challenges. Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells all required season-ending UCL surgical procedure earlier this yr, knocking three arms out of Baltimore’s rotation combine.
At present, they’ve Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer and Albert Suárez because the core 4 of their rotation. Burnes and Rodriguez make for a stable one-two however Kremer is usually a back-end man. Suárez is having a pleasant season with a 3.48 ERA, however he’s a 34-year-old journeyman within the massive leagues for the primary time since 2017. They’ve given temporary appears to be like to prospects Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott with out a lot success.
Including to that group needs to be an apparent goal for Baltimore. They’ve additionally been related to a high-upside choice in Garrett Crochet nevertheless it’s honest to surprise if that’s attainable or doubtless. It’s additionally attainable to see each Crochet and Taillon co-existing on this rotation subsequent to Burnes and Rodriguez.
Talking of Burnes, he’s an impending free agent, which can open an enormous gap in subsequent yr’s rotation. Common supervisor Mike Elias has admitted that including controllable beginning pitching would make sense for the membership, maybe making the additional two seasons on Taillon’s deal a part of the attraction for them. Levine’s report provides that Taillon’s contract permits him to dam trades to 10 groups, nevertheless it’s not recognized which groups are on that record.
