The White Sox are promoting pitching prospect Grant Taylor, reports James Fox of FutureSox. The club will have to make a corresponding move or moves to make space for him on both the active and 40-man rosters.
Taylor, 23, will be getting the call for the first time. The Sox selected him with a second-round pick in 2023, 51st overall, even though he had undergone Tommy John surgery earlier that year. Prior to that surgery, there were some who considered him the top pitcher for LSU, ahead of Paul Skenes. But Skenes obviously took off from there while Taylor has largely been on the shelf.
Taylor did make his professional debut last year, though in somewhat limited fashion. He tossed 19 1/3 innings between the Complex League and Single-A last year, allowing 2.33 earned runs per nine innings. He had a massive 44.4% strikeout rate and 2.8% walk rate in that small sample. Those outings took place in May and June. His last appearance was June 7th but he suffered a lat strain at that time, per James Fegan of Sox Machine. He did get healthy enough in time for some Arizona Fall League action, tossing 7 2/3 innings there, allowing eight earned runs but striking out 15 batters.
Despite the limited workload, he’s been generating some prospect hype. Baseball Prospectus gave him the #90 spot on their top 101 list coming into the year. FanGraphs gave him the #94 spot, hyping up his arsenal from the AFL. The FanGraphs report noted that he flashed “four average or better pitches,” noting that his fastball velocity was in the mid-to-upper 90s. He also throws a curveball, a slider and a changeup, the latter apparently being a new pitch that he didn’t have in college.
This year, it seems the Sox have been focusing on a relief role for Taylor. He started the year with six starts, though none of those went longer than three innings. Since then, he has largely been kept in a single-inning relief role. It’s hard to argue with the numbers on a rate basis. Taylor has logged 26 2/3 Double-A innings this year with a 1.01 ERA, 36.6% strikeout rate, 10.9% walk rate and 56.9% ground ball rate.
The Sox are apparently excited enough that they are going to skip Taylor over Triple-A and let him face some major league hitters, presumably in the same bullpen role he’s been in recently. It’s unclear if the Sox view that as a permanent move or just a temporary situation while he builds up a foundation of innings to build from.
Taylor hasn’t built up to a huge workload but there clearly lots of potential in the arm. Though he may be a work in progress, the Sox are in a position to experiment. Their 22-44 record is the worst in the American League and ahead of just the Rockies overall.
Though Taylor was on a few top 100 lists coming into the year, the prospect promotion incentive doesn’t apply here. To qualify for PPI, a player must be on two of the three lists between Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and ESPN. Taylor wasn’t on any of those three.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
He was in AA? He was doing great, but I just wonder why the big jump? 23 years old.
The jump from AA to the MLB is much less of a big jump than it once was.
He was promoted to a AAA team
Ouch!
That hurt.
12 hits in 26.2 IP this year, along with an ERA of 1.01. Small sample size, but he’s been dominant.
Because the White Sox have a garbage bullpen. And, no help in AAA.
I hate that they moved him to the bullpen
Sox have a history of doing this. Doesn’t mean he’s not going to be a starter at some point. Sale and Crochet were notable examples of relievers turned starters, but the Sox have done this with others, too.
Even Buehrle.
It’s not a final sentence, just this season and may be next. Barring major injuries, this could be a great way for him to adjust to major league hitters.
Even if it is where he ends up, lockdown relievers can still be incredibly valuable, especially to a team that set the MLB record for blown saves last year.
Sale and Crochet started in the pen. It’s probably their way to acclimate the younger players to the big leagues.
It is a move the cheap White Sox front office has found that hits a lot of their boxes.
He also went through TJS a couple of years ago as well, so better to build up arm strength and confidence
Taylor looks pretty vicious as a BP arm to see if he has the swagger and mental toughness to close some point this year. One can argue they need viable young high leverage BP arms more than starters. That aside, if he improves durability and is another SEC conversion back to SP like Crochet, that’s great.
TEams would rather have a SP any day of the week over a closer. Just look at what they are making.- A #4 starter is making what an elite closer makes in FA.
He has value either way, but this is not the last time he starts, they will try to stretch him out every year.
@James123: Think you are preaching to the choir. They want to limit his IP this year, the BP is bad and this role helps all involved from past success stories. He can follow Crochet post-TJS path trial, but if that doesn’t look so great (eg. Kopech), it’s possible that closer becomes a long-term role.
The White Sox still plan on stretching Grant Taylor out and into a starting role. Because of his injury issues the past few year including his college TJ surgery and last summer’s lat strain, Taylor’s inning were going to be very limited. Instead of having him pitch 3 inning starts they moved him to the bullpen where he can be more useful in 2025 and perhaps even next season.
Clearly Taylor will be on the same path that the White Sox successfully utilized with other “advance” college arms in the past like Chris Sale and more recently Garrett Crochet, the latter of whom also had injury obstacles to overcome including after his MLB promotion.
Taylor will now have a chance to work with the team’s MLB pitching coaches who can implement any changes while he stretches out his workload before they (hopefully) promote him to a starters role sooner rather than later.
Taylor already has a huge MLB fan in his corner, his former rotation mate at LSU…Paul Skenes. They communicate on a regular basis. Perhaps one day they can become rotation mates once again, especially with new White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia ready to help subsidize the team’s payroll as soon as next year as he readies to become their primary owner as soon as 2029. 🙂
I bash the Sox methods often but I like this kind of move and it has worked well many times.
I think its best case scenario for the kid, nothing foir this team to really play for other than pride this season, so it helps when there is not an insane amount of pressure.
Bannister never said Taylor was going to be a starting pitcher in the future only that he hasn’t closed the door on it. However, the fact that he mentions his pitching mechanics so much and compares it to those of other injury-prone starters tells you something…
He has 46 career innings in pro ball. This at least gets him acclimated to MLB, maybe saves his arm a little, and then they can stretch him out next spring.
I see nothing wrong with Taylor as a reliever for now. Good move.
Aaron: Crochet was never promoted to MLB. He went straight from college to the majors. Also, it’s far more likely that, if Skenes and Taylor ever become teammates again, it won’t be with the White Sox.
Garret Crochet was promoted from the University of Tennessee to the White Sox. lol
You may recall that Crochet made his MLB debut during the late opening, abbreviated 202o pandemic season. There was no minor league season, only the Schaumburg summer camp the White Sox utilized to promote depth pieces who normally would have been at AAA that year.
The White Sox also utilized that camp for many of their top prospects including Crochet, who otherwise would have had no chance to play. Crochet took advantage of his opportunity with a dominating performance. With the White Sox clear contenders for the first time since 2008, Crochet was utilized down the stretch much like Chris Sale was in his 2010 Draft year.
I would bet it is just this season. Managing innings and whatnot coming off elbow surgery. He’s very talented. Probably be in the rotation next season.
I bet not. And Bannister never said Taylor was going to be a starting pitcher in the future only that he hasn’t closed the door on it. However, he recently mentioned that his pitching mechanics compares to those of other injury-prone starters which tells you something of where he thinks Taylor belongs…
i’m definitely excited about this!!!
We can tell!!! Enjoy.
I’m happy for him. He’s been terrific at AA and the pen can use all the help it can get. Guessing this is the Sox starting him in the pen before moving him to the rotation next year.
Only 46 innings in the minors…teams just continue to set these young pitchers up for failure and injury
The White Sox have done a pretty good job of developing pitchers at the ML level. Injuries are going to happen. It’s basically understood that pitchers only have so many “bullets” before something breaks. The White Sox choose not to waste that ammo in the minor leagues.
Not in this case. If Taylor exhibits command like he has, the minors competition is a joke for him in terms of beginning in a short stint BP role. He was drafted outside of R1 knowing he was recovering from TJS rite of passage. They are limiting his IP anyhow.
Exactly. Which sounds like a page right out of the dodgers book of injuring young pitchers. Also why throw a guy who has 46 innings of pro ball in the big leagues on a bad team to risk destroying his confidence. Correct me if I’m wrong, this guy isn’t a top 100 prospect? What’s the rush I guess is my point
It’s just so darn hard to get excited anymore. I hope the kid gets awesome experience and then turns into a star closer for a decade or transitions into a stud starter. If so, it’ll probably be for another team as he’ll be traded away with Noah and Hagen for the next fire sale
In his first MLB game GRANT will oppose LEE !!
Makes sense to avoid Triple-A.Charlotte is a bandbox, which turns pop-ups into home runs. This is especially important for those who have difficulty inducing whiffs, which explains why Drew Thorpe was promoted from Birmingham last year. Pitching in Charlotte tends to zap pitchers’ confidence levels.
The pitchers in the White Sox system (up to Double-A) seem to be having far more in the way of success than do the hitters. IF they stay healthy, a rotation of Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Taylor, Thorpe and Shane Smith (not to mention unheralded arms like Jake Palisch, Shane Murphy, Christian Oppor, Jairo Iriarte, Lucas Gordon, Mason Adams, Jonathan Cannon, Davis Martin, etc.) could be a staff with solid depth and upside.
Was about to say they have a crop of pitching talent but yeah nevertheless. My only issue is only some are inning eaters plus true #1’s. Most of them are at worst a 3rd/4th starter.
Hopefully he will replace Bryce Wilson on the roster. He has been brutal this year,.
Yep, waiting to see who gets cut.
He did.