Grant Taylor Sets Sights On White Sox Rotation
Grant Taylor is the rare pitcher who looks just as athletic in still images as he does on video.
By the time his arm is cocked, the 22-year-old righthander’s back leg is almost completely straightened out behind him, still tickling the pitching rubber with his toes as he generates some of the most impressive hip-shoulder separation and extension in the sport.
It’s a level of physicality that produced 101 mph velocity in Taylor’s first outing of the spring, and a level of stuff that fueled a two-inning relief outing against the Dodgers where he struck out six batters.
And it’s a talent that has the White Sox leapfrogging Taylor a level to put him in the Double-A Birmingham rotation to start 2025, while also wondering if they’ll be able to harness his abilities in the rotation.
“He could be one of the best leverage arms in all of baseball, honestly, but that might be down the road,” White Sox senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister said. “There’s something really special about him anatomically that allows him to do things that most pitchers can’t do.
“But with that, we’re very conscious of his health and we want to do what’s best for him.”
It’s a testament to Taylor’s pure stuff that his prospect status has risen in the absence of any real performance track record. He fell to the White Sox in the second round of the 2023 draft after he had Tommy John surgery as an LSU junior.
He threw fewer than 30 innings last season between Low-A Kannapolis and the Arizona Fall League due to a lat strain.
But rather than accept a relief future, Taylor is only expanding his arsenal. He throws three breaking pitches—curveball, slider and a hard cutter that has hit 94 mph—and he’s one of many recent adopters of the kick-changeup.
“The more options I have, the more I can gain confidence throwing pitches, it’s only going to be to my benefit,” Taylor said. “The 100 (mph), if I throw it 60% of the time, it starts to not look like 100 mph quite so much.”
