The Pirates Are Still Allowing Themselves To Make Trades For Some Reason - The Yankees Just Landed Starting Pitcher Jameson Taillon
Alrighty Cashman is still wheelin' and dealin' to put together some kind of respectable starting rotation for the Yankees in 2021. This is a nice move that could potentially be awesome, and more importantly it cost virtually nothing. Sure, Taillon is coming off his 2nd Tommy John surgery and the track record from that kind of sentence isn't great, but the dude has loads of talent no question. The right hander was once hyped up as one of the best pitching prospects ever. I mean he was the 2nd overall pick in the 2010 draft in-between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. In four seasons in the big leagues he's compiled a 3.67 ERA with a FIP at 3.55. The guy can pitch, but it's his unlucky run of health that's prevented him from really shining. As I mentioned Taillon is recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, although he is expected to be good to go for Opening Day of this year. Taillon also battled testicular cancer in 2017, but didn't let it stop him from getting back to the show. The man is a warrior and will finally get a real opportunity to shine and win at the major league level in New York. From all accounts he's an awesome fella and I'm excited for this to happen.
The haul here makes it worth it to see what we've got going on. By August the Yankees rotation could look something like Cole-Kluber-Severino-Taillon-Montgomery/Deivi/Schmidt/Domingo. That's an actual rotation compared to what was projected a few weeks ago. I was fearful the Yankees would end up surrendering someone like Luis Medina in this deal since it looked like the Pirates were reluctant to give up Taillon from the jump. Turns out the Pirates just reverted back to being well...the Pirates who make nonsensical trades because they feel like they have to. I truly don't understand how ownership still lets them do these things when seemingly they always come back to bite them in the ass (see anyone who has been traded from there). Pittsburgh is getting back the no. 15, 19, and 21 ranked prospects in the Yankees system along with SS Maikol Escotto. I kinda liked what I saw from Miguel Yajure last year in small doses, but he's certainly not a guy I'm losing sleep over in this deal. I'm done with prospect hugging and these guys weren't going to be impact players for years, if they even get to that point. If you can make this kinda trade and give up mid-tier prospects I'm all for it. Taillon used to be able to get up to 99 with his fastball, but I assume post surgery he'll sit somewhere in the mid 90s with still some wicked movement on his breaking ball. He has all the tools to be awesome if he can get health on his side moving forward.
At this moment the Yankees Opening Day rotation looks something like: Cole-Kluber-Taillon and then a combo of Deivi, Montgomery, Domingo, and Schmidt for the final two slots. Let those guys battle it out in Spring and give it to whoever looks best. If they wanted to say see the fuck later to German I wouldn't think twice about it, but if he's here we gotta deal with it I suppose. You know there will be injuries, especially with Kluber/Taillon in the mix so it'll be good to have this depth no question about it. It took a few months but the Yankees roster has slowly, but surely come into form. Get me to Opening Day.