CHICAGO — After needing three months to find his rhythm last summer, Jameson Taillon didn’t waste any time getting after it in his season debut Friday afternoon. Taillon dominated a struggling Miami Marlins offense, working five innings of one-run ball, his lone run allowed coming on a wind-blown homer that would have been a flyout in any other park. In the Cubs’ 8-3 victory, Taillon allowed three hits, walked none and struck out four while tossing 73 pitches.
“I thought he was very sharp,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He came out with lots of strikes, pounding the zone. It’s an aggressive team so he just got ahead and finished at-bats very quickly. Really did as much as we could have expected and what we hoped for.”
Taillon got a first-pitch strike on the first 15 batters he faced and 17 of 18 in total. Falling behind was a big issue for Taillon early last season and the vast majority of the damage was done against him when he was behind in the count. Last season, when the hitter was ahead, they posted a 1.073 OPS against Taillon, about 21 percent better than league average in those situations. When hitters fell behind, they had a .514 OPS against Taillon, about five percent worse than league average.
“Sometimes I try to get a little too fine early in counts, especially against more aggressive teams,” Taillon said. “It’s like, screw that, hitting’s hard. Challenge them early, get in good counts, put myself in a good position, especially when I have a lead. Pitching from ahead in the count is just so much fun especially when you have five, six pitches and you can do a lot of things. It just opens up a lot of different things for me. I felt like last year if I was behind in the count, I’d back myself in a hole and there was only so much I could do here with certain pitches.”
Taillon used six pitches on Friday, spreading his 12 whiffs across four of his pitches: his four-seamer, curveball, cutter and sweeper. At times his curveball didn’t move as he wanted last summer when he posted a 6.93 ERA in his first 14 starts with the Cubs. But that pitch is expected to be a big part of his arsenal this season, potentially bucking a trend of seeing that pitch’s usage drop in the previous two seasons.
Jameson Taillon, 80mph Hammer. 🔨 pic.twitter.com/GedAt9YKms
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 19, 2024
Even after a strong second half last season, there is still distrust of Taillon among some in the fan base. Friday’s outing could start alleviating some of those concerns.
“It just helps confirm a little bit some of the things we worked on and some of the things we thought went right in the second half,” Taillon said. “Just confirms it’s not luck. We feel like we have a real formula for when I’m at my best what it should look like. In the first half (of 2023) we weren’t seeing that. I don’t think they knew what I looked like at my best, I don’t think the catchers did, I kind of forgot what it was like.”
The beginning of Taillon’s season was delayed due to a balky back that crept up on him as he warmed up for his first spring outing. Not wanting to rush him back, the Cubs allowed Taillon to slowly build back up in Arizona before making two rehab starts in the minors. Taillon’s return to the rotation comes at a time when the Cubs’ bullpen has been overworked and their starters have struggled to eat innings consistently.
The Cubs have gotten just 87 1/3 innings from their starters through 19 games, less than 4 2/3 innings per start. These numbers are slightly skewed due to Counsell using an opener before Ben Brown ate bulk innings and a start where Shota Imanaga dominated for four innings before an extended rain delay cut his day short. Still, even with five or six more innings added to that total, the Cubs would be in the bottom third of baseball as far as innings from their starters. As it currently stands, they’re 29th.
With Taillon returning to the rotation, the question becomes who moves to the bullpen. Brown has also looked quite good since his shaky debut. In his following three outings, Brown has a 1.23 ERA in 14 2/3 innings, with a 26.9 percent strikeout rate while walking just 7.7 percent. He may not technically be a part of the rotation with Taillon back, but strong performance thus far has earned him a chance to eat innings and help this team however Counsell needs.
First career quality start for @benbrown5499! pic.twitter.com/GYN9ubhNgt
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 16, 2024
“We’re just covering innings every day,” Counsell said. “The thought is with Ben, Ben will be involved in one of these games coming up here. We’ll use that to mitigate the doubleheader essentially. Where he pitches in the game? Undecided. But we have enough innings to cover that, the fact that he is stretched is going to help us.”
Counsell didn’t have any details beyond that, saying, “I expect him to get outs” when asked if the expectation was for Brown to work out of the bullpen for now. The relief group can certainly use both the length and outs that Brown can provide. With Thursday’s matchup against the Marlins rained out and rescheduled for a doubleheader on Saturday, the Cubs need all the quality arms they can get.
Counsell’s answer also continues a trend of expecting non-traditional use of pitchers. He’s less concerned with labels like starter and reliever and much more focused on balancing the two concepts of finding ways for his pitchers to get outs and eat innings while keeping them rested for a long season. There’s also value in bringing a young pitcher like Brown along in a thoughtful manner. Brown’s career high for innings in a season was set in 2022 when he tossed 104 across multiple levels.
The decision with Brown approaches while veteran Kyle Hendricks desperately searches for his best self. Through four starts, Hendricks has just 17 innings with a rough 12.71 ERA. He’s striking out an abysmal 12.5 percent of the batters he’s faced while walking a career-high 8 percent.
“Kyle’s performance needs to improve,” Counsell said. “I think we’re clear on that. We all agree on that and I think Kyle agrees with that.”
Still, Counsell and the Cubs will remain patient with Hendricks, at least for the time being. Both Counsell and team president Jed Hoyer talked about Hendricks’ struggles with pitch execution and sequencing. Normally one of the elite arms when it comes to execution and command, even the slightest issues with his delivery can throw off Hendricks’ strength.
“Kyle has to be at another level (with) his execution,” Counsell said. “That’s what he’s shown all of us, that he is at another level with his execution. That’s an easy place for a level of improvement to happen, no question, for his execution to improve.
“How do you improve that? There’s delivery, there’s Kyle’s feel in his delivery, there’s maybe a little bit of pitch sequencing, get him comfortable with some things and locked in on a particular pitch shape or location. In the end, Kyle’s just going to have to go out and execute that and execute those pitch locations. We’ve been working on delivery things.”
With team ace Justin Steele still on the injured list and Brown helping strengthen the bullpen, there isn’t an immediate need to push Hendricks out of the rotation. But he has to improve. Steele threw a bullpen in Seattle and is expected to have a live BP on Sunday. After that, a rehab start could be on the docket. That gives the Cubs some time to figure out whether Hendricks can find his best self.
“This isn’t the first time (Hendricks has) struggled,” Hoyer said. “No one pitches for 10 years in the big leagues and doesn’t have those struggles at some point. I think there’s a level of concern but I’m also very confident he’ll figure it out.”
(Photo of Jameson Taillon: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
