Cubs DFA Jameson Taillon in middle of rough season, further stressing pitching need ahead of trade deadline

ST. LOUIS — The Cubs couldn’t afford to keep sending struggling pitcher Jameson Taillon to the mound in the middle of a playoff race, cutting their longest-tenured active arm loose Monday.

Taillon was designated for assignment a day after he was crushed for seven runs and three homers in a loss to the Pirates, further stressing the Cubs’ need for pitching as the trade deadline approaches.

Only one pitcher in baseball had allowed more home runs than Taillon’s 25 when the sun came up Monday, and a 5.92 ERA in 15 starts was no longer cutting it with the Cubs trying to chase down the division-leading Brewers and set themselves up for a deep October run.

In other words, it’s crunch time. And Taillon wasn’t giving the Cubs much of a chance every fifth day, the team just 1-7 in his last eight starts.

“With where we’re at in the season and what’s going on in his season, we just didn’t feel like it was going to happen again,” manager Craig Counsell said. “In the end, we feel like we had to do better in that spot.”

The 34-year-old Taillon was in his fourth season on the North Side and helped the Cubs both get to and compete in the playoffs last season, with a tiny 1.57 ERA in his final six regular-season starts before allowing just two runs in a pair of postseason outings.

That success didn’t come this year. All the home runs contributed to an ERA north of 5.00 before he missed a month and a half with a hamstring strain, and upon returning, he was tagged for 11 runs and five homers in just 8 1/3 innings across a couple starts.

“This year, there were less of those moments where he had gotten it going,” Counsell said, “so you’re finding less reasons to give the next opportunity.”

The next opportunity will instead likely go to righty Javier Assad, who filled in for Taillon while he was on the IL. Assad’s last two appearances have come in relief, but he’ll move back to the rotation in the days before the trade deadline.

By the time the deadline passes next Monday, there could be all sorts of new pitchers for the Cubs to play with. That’s the idea, at least, with Hoyer forecasting a focus on acquiring help for a pitching staff still dealing with the effects of an avalanche of injuries.

Taillon’s departure further thins the depth that was a reason for the Cubs’ playoff exit last fall and has been tested to its limits already this season, further stressing how important it is for Hoyer to land some impact arms.

But while frustrated fans were tired of Taillon giving up homers – he knew how bad it got, saying after Sunday’s game, “I’m hurting the team” – the Cubs had to deal with losing a key clubhouse presence.

“He’s definitely on my Mount Rushmore of teammates,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said, “always willing to help everybody, always willing to make sure that everyone was in a good position to succeed on and off the field. He meant a lot to me.”

“Jamo was a leader here,” lefty starter Matthew Boyd said. “You can’t replace Jamo. You just can’t replace him. He will be missed in here. … You trust the decisions that are being made by the front office. They have a greater calculus of it all.”

Parting with a mainstay, an accomplished veteran leader, shows the weight of the Cubs’ championship-level expectations.

Taillon just wasn’t helping the cause.

“The urgency’s always been there,” Boyd said. “Wins in April count the same as wins in September. But the finish line’s more in sight, and the picture becomes more clear of where you have to go and what’s ahead of us.

“As the calendar gets shorter, the calculus changes. All the wins matter, but the distance that needs to be covered between April and Oct. 1, it weighs into that calculus earlier in the year. And then later in the year, it’s a slightly different formula. That’s just how it is.

“It’s not like a wake-up call or anything like that. It’s the end of July, and this is what happens sometimes.”