Right-hander Grant Taylor emerged as one of Chicago’s top bullpen arms last season. The current plan is for the former top prospect to reprise that role in 2026. White Sox general manager Chris Getz told reporters, including James Fegan of Sox Machine, that Taylor will not operate as a starter next season and will instead serve in a multi-inning relief role. “It’s important for him to pitch multiple innings, and that goes to many of our arms in the bullpen,” Getz said. “It’s more focused on the arsenal and ability to have deeper outings, rather than him grabbing starts next year.”
Taylor entered the season ranked sixth among White Sox prospects at FanGraphs. Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs both had him inside the top 100 overall. The 23-year-old was called up in mid-June to operate out of the bullpen. Taylor posted a 4.91 ERA across 36 2/3 innings. He made 36 appearances, 34 of which came as a reliever. Taylor’s two “starts” were as an opener, tossing an inning in each outing. Taylor’s 2.34 xFIP and 2.65 SIERA suggest he was much more effective than his ERA would indicate. A .420 BABIP and a 61.5% LOB% were the main culprits for the inflated ERA.
Working in shorter stints, at least until he builds up a significant workload, could make sense for Taylor given his career trajectory. He had Tommy John surgery in 2023, wiping out his sophomore season at LSU. Chicago selected him in the second round of the draft that year. Taylor made his professional debut in 2024, but only logged 19 1/3 innings in the low minors before going down with a lat injury. Taylor opened the 2025 campaign at Double-A, making his first six appearances as a starter before moving into a relief role. He excelled with Birmingham, allowing just three earned runs over 26 2/3 innings with a 36.6% strikeout rate. Taylor didn’t cede a run in any of his nine outings as a reliever.
Taylor immediately stepped into a high-leverage role with the White Sox, earning a save or a hold in eight of his first 11 appearances. He finished his debut season with six saves and nine holds. Jordan Leasure edged Taylor for the team lead in saves with seven. Chicago didn’t have a dedicated closer for much of the season, and Getz’s mention of multiple innings for Taylor’s role might mean he won’t be the full-time stopper in 2026. The stuff seems to be there if the White Sox did want to hand Taylor the job. He notched a 34.4% strikeout rate with the help of a 98 mph fastball and elite extension. Taylor’s 50% hard-hit rate isn’t ideal, but a lot of that contact came on the ground. He had just a 17% fly ball rate and didn’t give up a single home run, which is a nice attribute for a closer.
Chicago had nine different relievers record a save in 2025. Leasure might have the upper hand on the closer role heading into next season, with Taylor and potentially Mike Vasil (four saves last year) factoring into the 9th inning strategy. The club hasn’t had a reliever reach double-digit saves since Liam Hendriks had 37 in 2022.
The commitment to keeping Taylor in the bullpen means he won’t factor into the rotation mix. With Martin Perez hitting the market, the staff currently includes Shane Smith, Davis Martin, Sean Burke, and Jonathan Cannon, though Getz said the latter two would need to earn their spots this spring. Yoendrys Gomez closed the season in the rotation and would likely push for a spot if the team doesn’t bring in another arm. Top prospects Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz are also looming as future options. It’s an inexperienced group, and Getz said the team is interested in adding pitching via free agency, but framed it in terms of safeguarding the younger arms from handling a heavy burden. “In terms of protecting some of these players and creating depth, tapping into the free agent market might be the right decision as well.”
Photo courtesy Brad Mills, Imagn Images
It’s a fine move considering Taylor was borderline unlucky this past season.
Smart move by the White Sox in allowing Grant Taylor to build up his pitch counts and inning totals before giving him a legitimate shot at their starting rotation come 2027.
The organization has utilized this strategy successfully in the recent past with other college power arms who were deemed near ready MLB pitchers including Chris Sale, Carlos Rodon and Garrett Crochet. It allowed their MLB pitching coaches to finish off their development and ready them for eventual slots atop future rotations. Taylor can follow this path which hopefully will coincide with a team ready to contend in the 2027 AL Central.
I suspect the White Sox may also employ this strategy with another recently drafted college power arm at some point in 2026, southpaw Hagen Smith. Having Taylor and Smith primed for rotation slots by 2027 could expedite the team’s status as contenders along with the continued development of current #1 starter Shane Smith and top lefty prospect Noah Schultz who pitched last season at the AA and AAA levels.
Each of these four pitchers have #1 to #3 rotation ceilings. The organization also has other fine arms with middle or back end promise including Drew Thorpe who could return from his March 2025 TJ surgery by late spring or early summer. Thorpe was the centerpiece who came over from the Padres in the team’s March 2024 Dylan Cease trade.
Carlos Rodon wasn’t a reliever is his rookie season btw but correct on the others.
Carlos Rodon was on a much faster time line than the others. He was drafted in 2014 and signed near the deadline as a Scott Boras client. He was rushed through three levels to finish 2014 and began 2015 at AAA with 2 starts that totaled 10 innings. The White Sox debuted him with a three appearance baptism in their bullpen before he claimed a role in the rotation in early May.
Ohhh I see.
This kids gonna be pretty good in whatever capacity fills on the mound.
It’s fairly evident that the White Sox won’t be involved at the upper or middle level tiers of MLB free agency this offseason. Aside from their current non-contending status, it’s rarely been Jerry Reinsdorf’s m.o. to bid for top FA’s, let alone sign them as evidence by their historically low “winning” offers to the likes of Andrew Benintendi, Yasmani Grandal and (cough) Dallas Keuchel.
All that said, I wouldn’t be totally shocked if the White Sox actually submit bids on two Japanese star free agents in the coming 45 days. SP Tatsuya Imai and 3B/1B/OF Kazuma Okamoto both make sense for the still rebuiding White Sox in terms of their age and pedigree.
Imai would be the guaranteed ace for the 2026 White Sox, a status he would not hold with most MLB contenders who bid on him this offseason.
Okamoto would fill an immediate need at either 3B or 1B with Miguel Vargas holding down the other spot. The White Sox can actually offer Okamoto the starting gig at the hot corner if that’s his preferred position, something some contending MLB teams might be reluctant to do. Okamoto also offers the type of hitting skills that Chris Getz has been prioritizing since becoming their boss, namely high OBP, low K’s and decent power.
Making a bid for each player won’t cost the organization anything financially considering the unlikelihood that either would accept an offer to a still rebuilding club. What it will give the White Sox is some much needed good will with the Japanese market, something the organization has pretty much neglected since their 2005 championship season. Getz has insisted that will be changing in the near future, especially with new ownership ready to take over. That future should commence this winter and hopefully bear fruit when Justin Ishbia holds all of the purse strings by the end of the decade. 🙂
Getz said a LH 1B, bullpen, corner outfield and SP as needs to fill. Getz did hit on Erick Fedde in the Asian Market as well.
I kind of wanted to see him transition to a starter the second half of the season when Noah &/or Hagen get called up for the bullpen.
No doubt we’ll tie the Senators/Rangers of 161-1964 as the only team to lose 100 games 4 years in a row. I hate that I’m a White Sox fan
I’d bet serious money that they don’t lose 100. I’d love to see 100 as the over/under number.
I hope you’re right. But they’re not going to sign anybody. You’re probably assuming the kids will improve. You’d hope that’s the case but it’s not a given. Benintendi is going to be worse. If Robert hits, he might finally get traded. If he’s hurt, well, we’re used to that. I’d still take the over
Losing 100 games in 4 seasons in a row has happen 4 times in MLB history. You listed one of them but you also missed 1962-1965 Mets, the Phillies (forgot the years) and to a lesser extent the Philadelphia A’s (ditto for Phillies) btw.
They outscored their opponents over the second half of the season. They are actually pretty decent, outside of pitching. They scored 3.42 rpg in the first half, and 4.85 rpg in the second half. But with even a modest amount of spending on guys like Perez can go a long way..
Pitching was league average for most of the season based on ERA. 4.36 for SP and 4.11 for RP I believe which are ranked 20th and 18th respectively.
Hagen/Noah will not be in the bullpen anytime soon.
Taylor and Leisure should try resting
their arms in slings. Really relieves the
shoulder and helps the elbow some
It made no sense for them to bring up Taylor so fast. They weren’t going to contend this season, and instead of getting developmental innings in the upper minors, they started his eligibility clock.