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
