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“Resiliency” has sort of been the keyword around the Cubs to begin the year.
Jameson Taillon and Patrick Wisdom started the season on the injured list. Justin Steele went down on Opening Day. Julian Merryweather and Seiya Suzuki have gone on the shelf since the year began.
It hasn’t always been pretty. There have been some bumps in the road. But entering Friday, the Cubs still sat four games above .500, half a game back in the division and with the third-best record in the National League. Despite the adversity, they did, in fact, prove to be resilient.
But finally, the Cubs got some reinforcements to start this series against the Marlins.
Wisdom, who had been mashing Triple-A pitching while on his rehab assignment, was activated and got the start in right field. And after a back injury took him out as he warmed up for his Cactus League debut over a month ago, Taillon was set to get the ball Friday afternoon.
“This is really the first time seeing him throw in a game, for me, in a Cubs uniform,” manager Craig Counsell said pregame. “Look, Jamo has done this at a high level for a long time. Very confident in his preparation and very confident in his readiness. I’ve said this before: For these starters, I need to see them pitch and need to learn and need to watch them. And really, this is the first time for me watching Jamo from this lens, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Taillon more than delivered as the Cubs opened up their homestand.
Across five innings — his first time with five “ups” in 2024 — Taillon allowed just three hits, walked none and struck out four. The lone run against him came on a homer Statcast says wouldn’t have left the park anywhere other than Wrigley Field.
“I thought he was very sharp, came out with lots of strikes, pounding the zone,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s an aggressive team, so he just got ahead and finished at-bats very quickly and really did as much as we could’ve expected and what we hope for.”
Despite having made 172 starts across seven seasons previously, Taillon said he had some nerves before he took the bumps. Perhaps some of that came from wanting to show his results in the second half of 2023 were real.
Through his first 15 starts pre-All-Star break, Taillon posted a 6.93 ERA. He was working through some mechanical issues throughout that period, which contributed to his struggles.
But over his last 16 outings (all but the last one being starts), he recorded a much stronger 3.38 ERA. Grinding through the process helped him achieve the kind of results he expected from himself.
Though some fans still don’t necessarily trust Taillon to produce like the Cubs need him to after his poor first half last year, his start against Miami was a sign that his second-half success can continue into a new season.
“I think it just helps confirm a little bit some of the things we worked on and some of the things we thought went right in the second half, just confirms that it’s not luck,” Taillon said. “We feel like we have a real formula for, when I’m at my best, what it should look like. I feel like in the first half [last season], we weren’t seeing that. I don’t think they knew what I looked like at my best. I don’t think the catchers knew. I kind of forgot what it was like.”
Part of what made him so effective Friday was getting ahead in the count consistently.
Against each of the first 15 batters he faced and 17 of 18 overall, he started with either a first-pitch strike or a ball in play. Last season, when hitters fell behind against Taillon, they posted a .514 OPS. But when they got ahead of him, their OPS rose to 1.073.
That’s going to be a real focus for him in 2024. He can’t be worried about aggressive teams like the Marlins, who entered Friday seeing the third-least number of pitches per plate appearance. Getting ahead of hitters is one aspect of the game that can help him continue on an upward trajectory.
“I’ve always been able to throw strikes in my career, and sometimes, I try to get a little too fine early in counts, especially against more aggressive teams,” Taillon said. “It’s like, screw that, hitting is hard. Just challenge them early, get in good counts, put myself in a good position, especially when I have a lead. And then pitching from ahead in the count is just so much fun, especially when you have five, six pitches and you can do a lot of different things. It just opens up a different world for me.
“I felt like last year, if I was behind in the count, I’d kind of back myself into a hole of like, I only have so much I can do here with certain pitches and all that. So yeah, strike one is going to be a big emphasis.”
The timing of Taillon’s return should benefit the Cubs’ pitching staff as a whole.
They haven’t gotten a lot of length from their starters — though it should be acknowledged Counsell went with an opener for one game and rain ended Shota Imanaga’s start against the Dodgers early — resulting in just 82 1/3 innings pitched among the rotation heading into the series opener.
That ranked 29th in baseball, and it forced the bullpen — which was already missing contributors due to Merryweather’s absence and due to Javier Assad and Ben Brown taking on starting roles — to cover 78 1/3 innings (seventh-most in baseball).
Taillon didn’t go past five frames Friday, but after throwing just 73 pitches, he noted “I would’ve put myself in a position to go even deeper.” The hope now is that he continues on that path, eating up innings effectively as he has in the past and alleviating the burden that’s already been put on the rest of the Cubs’ arms.
“I’m excited to get him out there,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said pregame. “The more good starting pitching arms we have, the better. We’re going to need all of them, and so far, I’ve been really impressed with the way the rookies have helped us out.
“It’s nice to get some veterans out there, too, though.”
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