Article: Despite Diminished Velocity, Jameson Taillon Showing Good Stuff So Far

[Matthew Trueblood]

At a moment of dire need for a team battling mounting injuries, the big righthander has looked good and pitched well through two starts. His limitations remain, but so do his strengths.

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

No longer a spring chicken, the 32-year-old Jameson Taillon returned to the Chicago Cubs a bit less dynamic a pitcher than the team hoped they signed in late 2022. It's only been two starts, but Taillon seems not to have the same velocity with which he pitched most of last year. It's possible the back injury that delayed the start of his season is still having lingering effects, but it's also possible that the big righty will just continue to throw slower than he has for most of his career.

That's not the end of the world. Taillon has pitched admirably around it, allowing just three runs in 10 2/3 innings so far. It helped that his re-introductory outing was against the lowly Marlins, but still, he's looked good. For one thing, though he's given up a tick in terms of velocity, he's gained a bit of rising action on that four-seamer, allowing him to stretch the zone vertically and give hitters a tough time in a different way.

That's been an important development, as Taillon has sought to better neutralize left-handed batters this year. Last season, lefties hammered him, especially by piling up big power numbers. This year, the only home run he's allowed through two starts was to a right-handed batter (and even it was a bit of a cheapie). Lefties have still squared him up fairly often, but he's doing a better job of slowing down their bats.

As we discussed multiple times last year, Taillon's pitch mix is always evolving, and he tried to do a lot of new things last year. This season, he seems to have found more of a comfort zone, and it's the mix that makes the most sense, given his movement patterns and velocity. Against righties, he mixes his four-seamer, his sweeper, and his cutter almost exactly evenly, and rarely throws anything else. Against lefties, it's mostly four-seamer and curveball, with a half-ration of cutters and a few other pitches that are just for show.

Finding command of the sweeper and the right usage niche for the cutter took a while for Taillon, but he seems to be getting there. His cutter isn't one of those that stays close to the same plane as his fastball. He tried to use it like such a pitch last year, aiming it high and inside on left-handed batters, but neither the movement of the pitch itself nor his command of it made that workable. This year, he seems to have a better understanding of the fact that the pitch operates like a hard slider for him, and he's using it to change lanes against lefties and to keep righties from feeling confident in a read of either fastball or sweeper.

Let's talk a little bit about spin direction, and seam-shifted wake. Taillon has always been pretty good at imparting and manipulating spin, and he's utilized that ability well in 2024. Out of his hand, his four-seamer and cutter have fairly close spin direction. So do his curveball and sweeper. Crucially, too, those spin directions mirror each other reasonably well, making it hard for the hitter to spot spin differences right out of the hand.

By changing the seam orientation in his grips, though, Taillon can also create movement that isn't implied by the spin the batter sees out of the hand. This is just a new name for an old principle; it's the way sinkers and spitters, for instance, have always worked. Seam-shifted wake lets his cutter peel away from his four-seamer by much more than the spin direction would tell us, and separates the curveball (more influence from gravity) from the sweeper (less of that, and thus, more movement away from a right-handed batter).

These are things Taillon worked toward throughout 2023, and he seems to have a firmer handle on them in 2024. That doesn't mean he's going to continue cruising, but his arsenal is taking a clearer shape and his early results look good. Pitching well as velocity abandons you is a tall order. Taillon has made some sound adjustments, though, and seems set to deliver the kind of stability and volume the Cubs' rotation needed so badly while he was absent from it.

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