The contending Cubs need to add some serious starting pitching. You know it. The baseball world knows it. Every current member of the team’s rotation must, on some level, know it, too.
“It’s kind of touchy to talk about it, though,” right-hander Jameson Taillon said Wednesday before the Cubs took on the Guardians at Wrigley Field. “You don’t want to be praying you get someone and then someone on your team reads that and they’re like, ‘Well, that guy might replace me.’ That stuff can be a little weird.”
The veteran Taillon, 33, seemingly wouldn’t have any reason to worry about losing his own spot. Yet he is a significant part of the equation as the July 31 trade deadline approaches and starting pitching — the Cubs rank 22nd in the majors in that category with an ERA of 4.27 — continues to be a drag on what otherwise is a promising team picture.
Not surprisingly, most of the other first-place teams around the league put that Cubs ranking to shame. The Phillies rank at the top in starting pitching. The Tigers are third, the Yankees sixth and the Astros eighth. Only the Dodgers are struggling — their rarefied version of struggling, anyway — at 19th, but they’re cruising with a luxurious cushion in the standings. Even the White Sox, who rank 21st in starting pitcher ERA, have an edge on the Cubs, and if that fact doesn’t send a chill down North Siders’ spines, what would?
But back to Taillon. You know what would be just as helpful to the Cubs as trading for a quality starter? If their highest-paid pitcher at $18 million a year got himself into top gear and stayed there the rest of the season.
Being as good as he was last year would get the job done. Taillon went 12-8 with a 3.27 ERA, his strongest season since 2018 and as productive as any Cubs starter was outside of Shota Imanaga.
“I feel like I went on a pretty good run last year and had a really good year,” he said. “Shota and [Justin] Steele had big years for us, and what I did probably kind of went under the radar, which is fine. I’m OK working in the shadows. I’m very happy to be that guy.”
Shadows or not, this Cubs team — without Steele for the year, and uncertain about how many total innings Matthew Boyd and Cade Horton will be able to throw — needs Taillon to channel his inner former No. 2 overall draft pick (2010) and deliver the goods.
Taillon had a 2.76 ERA over five April starts, a 3.68 ERA over five May starts and a 5.57 ERA over six June starts. Raise your hand if you can spot a trend. He has an ugly road ERA of 5.40, has given up 22 homers — second-most in baseball, and more than he gave up all last year — has taken too much damage from right-handed hitters and is in a stretch of back-to-back-to-back losses. Halfway through the season, only six qualifying National League starters have higher ERAs than Taillon’s 4.44.
Is this a guy the Cubs can count on?
Taillon isn’t dismayed by his last three starts, which have been far from his best.
“You don’t want to overreact,” he said. “Just like if a hitter has a slump of 10 games, it doesn’t mean you go replace [Pete Crow-Armstrong] or whatever.”
There’s a bigger question to be asked, given this is a first-place team with 90-plus wins in its sights: Is Taillon a starting pitcher the Cubs would be confident sending into battle in October?
“There’s a lot of great players who don’t have success in the playoffs, and then there are some players who rise to the occasion in the playoffs,” he said. “I think with my discipline, my work ethic, the shape I’m in, I do think I can pitch well in October. I think I have what it takes to do well in October.”
Not many pitchers know better than Taillon what it’s like to miss out. He has had not one, but two Tommy John surgeries. He had what might have been a comeback season from the first of those setbacks derailed by the need for hernia surgery.
And in 2022, in his only taste of postseason pitching, he started only one of the Yankees’ nine games as their No. 4 option.
“I was just excited to be on the roster,” he said.
The Cubs need Taillon to wear a bigger hat than that. He says he’s built for it.
“I might not be the guy out there punching out 15 and pounding my chest, but I feel like I’m dependable and reliable,” he said. “I would love to have a 2.00 ERA and get Cy Young votes and be an All-Star, but I’m also just proud to take the ball and be consistent.”
