Yankees' Jameson Taillon Handles First Test of Adversity This Spring With Ease

BRADENTON, Fla. — In Jameson Taillon's spring training debut last week, the right-hander barely broke a sweat. He threw only seven pitches, breezing through a perfect inning of work before throwing more pitches in the bullpen.

On Saturday, in his second appearance with his new club, Taillon faced more adversity. That includes a bases-loaded jam in the second inning.

Runners on the bases and an increase in Taillon's pitch count didn't deter the starter from showcasing exactly why he's poised be a special addition for New York's rotation this season.

Taillon pitched two scoreless frames against his old team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. He struck out four, allowing one hit and one walk. More importantly, still recuperating from his second Tommy John surgery, Taillon threw 39 pitches. 

"I thought it was good work," Taillon said in a Zoom call after coming out of the game. "With my first start being seven pitches, there's some things that I haven't experienced in a couple years like in-game situations, runners on, holding runners, mixing my tempo, mixing my looks to second with a runner there. Even the little things like going through sign packages with the catcher. That's a situation I haven't been in in a while."

That in mind, Taillon was actually pleased that he unintentionally worked his way into a situation where he was pitching with the bases loaded. After issuing a four-pitch walk to Pirates catcher Michael Perez, Taillon buckled down to punch out second baseman Kevin Kramer on a perfectly executed full-count fastball up in the zone. 

"Worked himself into a little bit of trouble there in the second inning and we extended him to see him keep making pitches," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "I thought he executed a couple really good fastballs, especially to get out of that inning, at the top of the zone. Made some good breaking balls, gave up a couple hard hit balls in that second, got backed into the corner a little bit, got his pitch count up a little bit and I thought he responded really well."

Kyle Higashioka, who was behind the plate for Taillon, had similar takeaways from the outing. 

"I thought he looked really good. His fastball looked really sharp, breaking pitches also sharp," Higashioka said. "I thought he commanded both sides of the plate, also pitched up in the zone well. It was good to see how he reacted to getting into a jam which I thought his response to that was excellent. Pretty impressive outing."

As the spring progresses, Taillon will find himself in more situations were he's making pressure pitches, regaining that comfort and confidence on the mound. Saturday's appearance was also noteworthy for the right-hander because of his time in the Pirates organization.

The 29-year-old had been with Pittsburgh since the franchise picked him second overall in the 2010 MLB draft. That's a decade of instructional leagues, rehab stints and spring trainings down in Bradenton, making Saturday a lovely trip down "memory lane."

"I've done that same drive a lot," Taillon said, smiling. "I didn't have to pull up my Google Maps to get here."

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