January 25, 2021

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

Blue Jays fans may see a lot more of Jameson Taillon next season now that the Canadian-American starting pitcher has set sail from Pittsburgh to the American League East.

The Pirates traded Taillon – a dual citizen whose parents are Canadian – to the New York Yankees on Sunday for a package of four prospects.

In Taillon, the Yankees are betting on a 29-year-old pitcher who has missed three seasons to injury – including two Tommy John surgeries and a sports hernia operation – yet has dazzled with tantalizing stuff when healthy.

That’s been the rub of late for Taillon, who last appeared in a major league game in August 2019.

Drafted second overall between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado in 2010 – the highest a Canadian has ever been selected – Taillon has posted a 3.67 ERA and 1.25 WHIP over parts of four seasons.

The deal unites Taillon with former Pirates teammate Gerrit Cole.

Taillon played for Canada in the 2013 World Baseball Classic – at 21, he was the youngest player on the roster – and made his professional debut on Canadian soil four years later, earning the win against Toronto on Aug. 11, 2017, behind six-plus innings of two-run ball.

His mother Christie, a Toronto native, and about 40 friends and relatives were in the stands at Rogers Centre.

That start was just three months after Taillon underwent surgery for testicular cancer. He inspired his teammates by going from the operating table to a big-league mound in exactly five weeks.

“He’s just mentally prepared and built for whatever comes his way,” Pirates starter Chad Kuhl told CBN in 2017.

“He already had several injuries that took lengthy recovery. I think it just speaks to him as a person, his mental toughness.”

“He’s mature beyond his years,” agreed catcher Chris Stewart. “Just the way he handles himself, certain situations, the way he handles pressure. He’s gone through a ton.”

Taillon’s track record of toughness should help in the high-pressure New York market, where Yankees fans will look to him and two more top arms coming off season-scuttling injuries – Corey Kluber and Luis Severino – to push their club to its first World Series title since the year before Taillon was drafted.

Based on his comments to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after news of the trade broke on Sunday, Taillon is ready for the challenge.

“I’m fired up to jump into such a legendary, winning organization,” he told reporter Jason Mackey.

“I just feel like I’m at a point in my life and career where I’ve put in so much work to rehab this and come back and reinvent myself that I’m just so friggin’ fired up to get to pitch for a winner and in super meaningful games.”