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NEW YORK – As Jameson Taillon’s trade between Pittsburgh and the New York Yankees began to take hold, he considered reuniting with his former roommate Gerrit Cole.
“Every night you get a five-star cooked meal,” Taillon said. “Even if he cooks for himself, he will marinate what he cooks properly. He will do it all with perfect execution. He’s going to have a perfect food pairing for that.
Taillon, recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, was acquired Sunday for four prospects. He joins a revamped rotation led by Cole and is expected to include Deivi García, Jordan Montgomery and Corey Kluber, whose pending one-year $ 11 million deal is expected to be finalized this week.
A 29-year-old right-hander, Taillon has not launched since May 1, 2019. In addition to elbow operations with New York Mets medical director Dr. David Altchek on April 9, 2014 and August 13, 2019, he also underwent operations for a sports hernia on July 8, 2015 and for testicular cancer on May 8, 2017. He was hit in the head by a 105 mph line workout off Hernán Pérez of Milwaukee on July 19, 2016, and stayed in the game.
“When you go through that it doesn’t look as good as it looks. It sounds crazy. But every injury is separate. Every experience is separate,” he said.
Taillon felt he had not satisfied the confidence Pittsburgh displayed when he was selected as the second overall pick in the 2010 entry draft. He was disappointed that the Pirates blew up a squad that was going through the miners together and would admit “seeing all my good friends getting traded in Pittsburgh and seeing the direction we were going … didn’t necessarily start a fire” and he thought that a trade “was needed” .
“I am embarking on a legendary franchise, a legendary organization,” he said. “I went overnight from a rebuilding organization to a team like the Yankees where I come in and the only thing they care about is winning. So it’s kind of kindled a fire under me. “
When he woke up from his last surgery, he decided he needed to relieve the pressure on his elbow, work more on his legs, and shorten the movement of his arm. He reworked his mechanics with Ben Fairchild, a sports performance director in Houston who helped Andy Pettitte, Mark Melancon and Anthony Rendon; Pirates, Sports Performance Director AJ Patrick; Oscar Marin, Pirates thrower trainer; Justin Meccage, Pirate Enclosure Coach, and the Florida Baseball Ranch in Lakeland.
He started pitching bullpen sessions last July and has had up to three innings of batting practice. Taillon believes his fast ball speed is around 95 mph, where it was before the last injury, and he was disappointed. Taillon plans to leave his four-seam fastball heavily, alternating curves and sliders with occasional changes.
“I hate seeing videos the way I threw them. It turns me off,” he said. “I kind of had a pickup moment where I said, you know what, my current set of mechanics and what I’m doing just isn’t working. It’s just the hard cold truth. need to change something. or else my career is going to be over. So I stripped it completely. With rehab, all you got this time. I had 12, 15, 16 months to strip it and sort of reorganize my mechanics and reorganize my career. “
Taillon was inspired by watching former Pirates teammate Daniel Hudson overcome two Tommy John operations and beat Houston’s Michael Brantley for the 2019 World Series Finals for Washington. Taillon is looking forward to reaching the Big League playoffs for the first time with the Yankees.
“New York is one of those organizations where it’s all about winning. From what I’ve heard, nothing else matters in this clubhouse,” he said. . “It’s a bunch of guys trying to get better, trying to push for October. And I mean, seriously, ever since I heard the Yankees are where I’m headed, I can’t help but think about it. I have heard that Yankee Stadium in October is just amazing. “
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