Yankees trade for Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon

Just after it became official, Gerrit Cole started spreading the news on Instagram. The Yankees’ ace was being reunited with his former spring training roommate. The Bombers had completed a trade for right-hander Jameson Taillon for four prospects.

It’s a chance for Cole and Taillon to reach heights they trained to attain when they were the cornerstone of Pirates hopes back in their younger days. It’s also a way for the Yankees to add a supporting cast of starters behind Cole without spending too much to put them over the luxury-tax threshold. It is seen within baseball as a low-risk, high-reward deal for the Yankees and a very-good deal for the Pirates.

The Yankees are sending Miguel Yajure, a 22-year-old right hander who made his big league debut in 2020, along with right-hander Roansy Contreras, shortstop Maikol Escotto and outfielder Canaan Smith to Pittsburgh for Taillon, who is working his way back from his second Tommy John surgery.

“Yajure is a good pitcher, great upside,” one National League scout said. “I like Smith too. He hits for power, I think he’s going to be a good corner outfielder. The Pirates did really well on this deal.”

And the Yankees potentially got some much-needed depth for the rotation.

At the beginning of the offseason, Cole was to be backed up by a whole bunch of uncertainty: Luis Severino will be rehabbing from Tommy John and not be expected back until June or July. Domingo German, who has not pitched in a major league game since Sept. 2019, serving a suspension under the MLB/MLBPA joint domestic violence policy, will be coming off a winter league stretch where he posted a 7.19 ERA. Jordan Montgomery will be in his second season back from Tommy John surgery, after having an up-and-down 2020. Deivi Garcia, Clarke Schmidt and Mike King will be riding into the new season after showing talent and their professional inexperience in 2020.

Last week the Yankees added two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber, who pitched one inning since May 2019 because of injuries. That cost the Yankees $11 million for the chance the 35-year-old rediscovers his form.

Taillon is making a very manageable $2.5 million in 2021 and still has two more years of team control.

In four big-league seasons, Taillon made just 82 starts, because his promising talent has always been interrupted by injuries. In 2014, while in the minor leagues, he had his first Tommy John surgery. He battled testicular cancer in 2017 and he had his second Tommy John surgery in August of 2019.

While there are many examples of pitchers successfully returning after one Tommy John surgery, obviously including Taillon, few have come back strong from a second. The most recent would be Nate Eovaldi.

A groundball pitcher (46.2%) with a notable low hard-hit rate of 31.9%, Taillon keeps the ball in the ballpark. He has posted a 3.67 career ERA with a 3.55 FIP. He has a career 21.8 strikeout and 6.0 walk rate per nine innings pitched. He has a 3.9 career fWAR.

In his last healthy season, 2018, Taillon posted a 3.20 ERA with a career-high 179 strikeouts in 191 innings of work.

Yajure was a pitcher that many teams were interested in after making his major league debut in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic-shorted MLB season. He allowed one earned run over seven innings pitched in three relief appearances.

The Yankees, with little wiggle room in the payroll to stay under the $210 million luxury tax, had to deal from their 40-man pitching depth, however, to bulk up their starting pitching depth. After a stop-and-start spring training, shut down for nearly four months by the COVID-19 outbreaks across the country, and the very limited workloads for pitchers in the abbreviated season, teams are concerned about pitchers arms heading into 2021.

“There are some guys talking about six-man rotations,” one National League pitching coach said. “I think you are going to need a lot of pitching depth to get through this year. You have to be worried about injuries. You need at least seven pitchers to get through a season these days anyway, I think teams are going to be stocking up.”

The move also freed up roster room on the 40-man that the Yankees needed to make official their deal for DJ LeMahieu and Kulber. They still need to make one more spot.