When the Cubs signed righty Jameson Taillon to a four-year, $68M deal in December 2022, that contract included a 10-team no-trade clause. In keeping with Taillon on Monday, by way of Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, “I haven’t needed to say sure or no to something.”
Taillon, who professed his love for Chicago, coughed up six runs in 4 and a 3rd innings to the Reds in Cincinnati on Monday. He’ll flip 33 in November. Taillon’s common fastball velocity is down a full tick this 12 months, along with his strikeout charge falling to 19.1%. Although his ERA was 4.84 final 12 months and at present sits at 3.35, there hasn’t been a ability change in these 18 begins.
On condition that Taillon is owed $18M in every of the 2025 and 2026 seasons, it’s attainable the Cubs may look to get out of that dedication. In the perfect case state of affairs, they may additionally extract some helpful gamers from a market that noticed the Astros present a robust return for lefty Yusei Kikuchi. Although the Cubs’ acquisition of Isaac Paredes from the Rays signaled an intention to retool and compete subsequent 12 months, buying and selling Taillon earlier than Tuesday’s 5 p.m. central deadline may nonetheless make sense.
As Mooney notes, the Astros had been one of many groups that had been linked to Taillon. The Padres, Orioles, Yankees and Pink Sox have additionally been linked, although Baltimore picked up Zach Eflin. We’ve additionally seen the Brewers, Cardinals, Royals and Pink Sox add beginning pitching this month. If he’s to commerce Taillon on Tuesday, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has to deal with a number of higher choices being accessible in the marketplace like Jack Flaherty, Garrett Crochet and Blake Snell, plus comparable ones in Nestor Cortes and Tyler Anderson.
