Yankees' Jameson Taillon Provides an Update on His Rehab
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Yankees pitcher Jameson Taillon endured an up and down season during his first campaign in the Bronx last year, which ended prematurely due to a torn ligament in his ankle.
This ailment ultimately required surgery, which he underwent on Oct. 28 and is expected to keep him sidelined into the early portion of next season as well.
Taillon, who is now out of the walking boot he was placed in following his procedure, provided an update on his rehab and potential, yet fluid, timeline to return to the mound.
“I was pretty much laid up in bed with my foot elevated for the first two weeks,” Taillon told Lindsey Adler of The Athletic recently. “After that, I got put in my walking boot and I was able to really slowly start walking more. Now I’m out of the boot, I’ve been out of it for like 10 days and feeling really good.
“The inflammation is going down now, so it’s just kind of a buildup process, kind of just like the arm injuries I’ve dealt with, it’s just such a progression-based thing. I just started loading squats and starting to expand what I’m able to do.”
Taillon, 30, has dealt with a number of arm issues over the course of his professional career, undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2014 while in the minors and flexor tendon surgery and a UCL revision in 2019. Not to mention, Taillon also endured a sports hernia in 2015 and received surgery for testicular cancer during the 2017 season as well.
This time around, he is working towards a comeback at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York while recovering from his latest procedure.
“(HSS has) got a pretty good sports med department, and I’ve actually been really happy with the care I’ve gotten,” Taillon said. “It’s still a little tricky because the Yankees’ strength department wrote out a program for me, but they don’t get to see me every day, so that side of it is kind of weird. I’m obviously super lucky even just having dealt with injuries in the past. I’ve got my own strength coaches I’ve used back home and my own PTs.”
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While Taillon appears to be on the right track, he is still a time away from throwing, and was unable to pinpoint an exact date for when he can begin playing catch this winter.
“I really don’t because this is such a rare injury for pitchers,” said Taillon. “We have a rough timeline of when I can start really playing catch, which would be sometime in like mid to late January. But even the doctor was kind of like, 'you guys are the pitching experts.' A typical offseason throwing progression would be like six to eight weeks of playing catch and then four weeks of bullpens. So basically everything I’m doing is kind of a month behind, but I’m not really sure where that will leave us at the end.”
Taillon went onto detail the exact medical term and severity of the uncommon injury that he suffered down the stretch of last season.
“The medical term would be a longitudinal split tear of the peroneus longus tendon. Basically, I had a hole in the middle of my longus tendon. There are two tendons that run side by side and basically I tore the one that’s a little less important. They basically attached the two tendons and they’re calling it a supertendon, which is kind of badass. A supertendon in my ankle.
“The severity of it was kind of just common for that type of injury. It was pretty much what we expected. When I went in for my second elbow surgery, I went in thinking I was getting a flexor repair and came out with a fully reconstructed elbow. Whenever they go in and just find what’s expected, that’s actually kind of the best case.”
On a positive note, Taillon sounds rather optimistic that he can bounce back next season and remain healthy. But when describing his 2021 campaign, he shared a level of disappointment in his performance as opposed to his typical career norms.
“I feel like in the past, I’ve kind of been a pretty consistent guy in the big leagues,” said Taillon. “When I was with Pittsburgh, I felt like consistency was really my strong point. I could pretty much run out there and give you five or six (innings) with like two or three (runs) almost every time.
“This year, it felt like my hot streak was really hot and my cold streak was really cold, which really isn’t like me. That part of it was a little difficult to deal with, just kind of riding the highs and lows.”
The Yankees acquired Taillon from the Pittsburgh Pirates last January in exchange for a package of four prospects. Taillon finished his first season in the Bronx with an 8-6 record, 4.30 ERA and 140 strikeouts across 144.1 innings. He initially suffered his ankle injury in early September but was able to gut it out and return to make two more starts later in the month, including the final game of the season, helping the Yankees clinch a wild-card berth.
With the departure of Corey Kluber, the Yankees are hoping that Taillon, Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery can step up to complement ace Gerrit Cole in the rotation in 2022. And if Taillon can stay on the mound, he intends on using the lessons he learned from a season ago to help improve his game.
“There were definitely a lot of situations where, looking back, whether it’s pitch usage or the new repertoire I was kind of working with, I feel like there were a lot of situations where I just kind of beat myself. I had to have been near the top of the league in two-strike hits. A lot of ups and downs, but also it was very clear on what I needed to work on and what went wrong and what went right, which is not the worst thing.”
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