Grant Taylor is the No. 6 prospect in the White Sox’ system, a 2023 second-round draft choice who seemed as sensible a candidate as any for a spot in the Sox’ rotation of the future.
Instead, he’s already a major-leaguer. In the bullpen.
Who knows how things will play out in the long term. Will Taylor take the Garrett Crochet path to stardom as a starter? Or will he be a bullpen arm from here on out?
The Sox, in the thick of their rebuild, have ample time to figure that out. But at the outset of Taylor’s big-league career — which began a couple of weeks ago with a surprise promotion from Double-A Birmingham — he’s firmly part of the relief corps, a plan the Sox hatched in the spring.
“They told me when I got sent down from major-league camp to minor-league camp in spring training that it was a possibility I’d move to the bullpen,” Taylor told the Sun-Times on Tuesday. “They came to me a month and a half, two months ago, and said, ‘We want to start making that transition now. We think we can use you at the major-league level soon, and we want to get that ball rolling.’ ”
Given Taylor’s high prospect ranking and the tantalizing idea of him throwing his triple-digit fastball alongside Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith, it might seem strange that he already has been moved to relief. Fans hoping he’ll be a starter one day can look at how things panned out for Crochet and find a blueprint.
For the Sox’ part, they’re certainly not against Taylor returning to a starter’s devel-opment at some point. But this is the way they’ve gone for the time being, a response to injuries that have severely reduced Taylor’s playing time the last couple of seasons. It’s different than the innings-management strategy they used with Schultz last season — he pitched once a week and never logged more than four innings in a start.
So far, so good. Taylor has allowed only two runs and walked just one batter while striking out seven in his first six major-league innings. He picked up his first save Sunday.
“Throwing more often is definitely fun,” Taylor said.
This won’t necessarily be a blanket approach for the Sox, although they also have turned recent call-up Wikelman Gonzalez, one of the prospects acquired in the Crochet trade in December, from a starter into a reliever.
“It’s case to case,” Getz told the Sun-Times on Monday. “With Grant, with his history and what we saw he was capable of doing in these shorter stints . . . we felt like he could help us in the bullpen right now. We were going to have to really manage the innings regardless. We felt like he could help us. For him to be able to gain confidence up here just opens more doors.
“This experience can be really valuable for the development of players. We’re not closing the door on starting for any of these pitchers. There’s different ways to develop these guys, and we felt like this was the best for them.”
So where is Taylor ultimately expected to land — rotation or bullpen?
“Long term, it’s tough to tell which pathway he’s going to take,” Getz said. “In the meantime, I think the bullpen is probably the best role for him. He’s shown he can throw multiple innings. To intentionally stretch him out isn’t the highest of priorities.”
Said Taylor: “I’m definitely curious [about starting]. But right now, I’m focused on relieving and doing my job.”