Taillon’s future in Cubs’ rotation uncertain after loss to Pirates

PITTSBURGH — Jameson Taillon’s future in the Cubs’ rotation became uncertain Sunday.

Pitching in the ballpark where he spent the first four years of his big-league career, the veteran experienced one of his toughest starts with the Cubs in Sunday’s series finale. With a chance to secure a sweep against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Taillon got tagged for seven runs off three home runs, including a grand slam, in the Cubs’ 8-7 loss at PNC Park.

The Cubs (59-46) chipped away at the six-run deficit Taillon put them in after they briefly held a 1-0 lead in the second inning. A three-run fourth, featuring a Pete Crow-Armstrong RBI triple, and three runs in the final two innings put pressure on the Pirates, but ultimately it was too much for the Cubs to overcome.

Taillon’s confidence level in his stuff right now is, as he put it postgame, not good.

“The results speak for themselves,” Taillon said. “I’m confident I can figure it out, but when you’re going out there and hurting the team, it’s obviously not a good place to be.”

Taillon has now allowed 25 home runs this season — tied for the second-most in MLB — in just 76 innings. It’s unclear if Taillon will make his next start, which, if he pitches on normal rest, is lined up to be at home Friday against the New York Yankees.

“I think we’ve got to discuss it, yeah,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of Taillon making his next start. “We’ve got days to figure that out, but we have to discuss what’s best for the staff in general.

“We need better than that,” the manager said. “We gave up seven, we had a great comeback. Bullpen did a great job. We played a great offense, but that’s a big gap we had to make up.”

Although Counsell indicated the Cubs will factor in that this was only Taillon’s second start back from the injured list after missing seven weeks with a hamstring strain, the home run problems aren’t new. He’s surrendered a home run in 12 of his 15 starts, and eight of those starts had multiple home runs.

“It’s been a problem kind of all year,” Taillon said. “Obviously lefties have been crushing me and then today a couple righties on backup cutters, those were just left over the middle today. I don’t know, as far as a theme goes, just leaving too many pitches over the big part of the plate to lefties. Probably could pitch in a little more to buy myself more room out there on the outer half, but overall obviously not good enough.”

In the final season of his four-year, $68 million contract, Taillon’s time in the Cubs’ rotation could come to an end if he can’t get on track quickly. The Aug. 3 trade deadline is now a week away, and the Cubs are expected to explore the starting pitching market. Ideally, the organization leverages its position-player prospect depth to acquire a pitcher who’s an upgrade that can be counted on to start postseason games. That would be a pricey addition, of course, but the Cubs’ pitching depth has taken a hit this season, and with Cade Horton out for the season and Justin Steele unable to return in a starting role, a frontline starter would be ideal.

In the short term, the Cubs could slot right-hander Javier Assad into Taillon’s next turn in the rotation and give him some time to try to fix things in pregame bullpen work, or they could use him out of the bullpen over the weekend against the Yankees in a low-leverage spot to try to build some confidence. Even if the Cubs don’t acquire an upgrade for the rotation by the trade deadline, right-hander Edward Cabrera is nearing a mid-August return from his hamstring strain that would force someone out of the rotation.

Less than 24 hours before Taillon’s start, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy explained that the right-hander’s home run issues have less to do with pitch sequencing and instead come down to inconsistent command. Too often Taillon is putting himself in bad counts — 1-0, 2-0, 2-1 — that force him back into the strike zone. And with the addition of ABS, hitters are becoming better at controlling the zone and knowing what areas they need to hone in on.

Taillon fell behind in the count to nine of the 19 Pirates he faced.

“It’s just about executing for him, it’s always going to come down to that,” Hottovy told the Tribune. “He’s got a good mix. He’s got enough stuff. It’s just about being in the positive counts and being able to execute. Sometimes command is actually trying to do too much or trying to be too fine. You’re giving yourself less margin for error, and so the misses become a little bit bigger instead of actually giving yourself more margin for error early and using more of the strike zone.

“I know it’s counterintuitive when you give up some homers to think about using more of the strike zone, but that’s how you get in positive counts over and over again,” Hottovy added. “A lot of his consistency tends to come from his arm action, how long it gets. When he stays compact and tight it’s a lot more rhythmic and a lot more repeatable, but his mechanics have been good. It’s mostly come down to the mental side of really focusing on executing.”

Taillon is a meaningful presence in the Cubs’ clubhouse. His leadership, work ethic and accountability make him well-liked by his teammates. He delivered in each playoff round last year with huge starts in both win-or-go-home Game 3 victories over San Diego in the wild-card round and Milwaukee in the division series. This is ultimately a performance-based league, however, and the Cubs might be forced to make a tough decision as to whether the 34-year-old can still help them win in some capacity.

Taillon fully understands what’s at stake.

“I feel pressure to do better, for myself especially, but I’ve been around long enough to know that I’m hurting the team and have been for a little while now,” Taillon said. “So I’m not naive to that at all.”