'Always imagined a zero': Taylor turns in scoreless inning in debut

HOUSTON -- The White Sox’s plan was laid out for Grant Taylor, the club’s No. 6 prospect per MLB Pipeline, when he was sent from Major League camp to the Minor League side during Spring Training in March.

Taylor would begin the season building up innings with Double-A Birmingham but would transition to the bullpen as the right-hander with electric stuff moved closer to his innings limit. The goal was to keep Taylor as healthy as possible, but also give him a quicker chance to reach the Majors.

That chance came Tuesday, when Taylor was called up to join the team in Houston and threw a scoreless seventh inning during his Major League debut in a 4-2 victory over the Astros at Daikin Park. Taylor threw 10 of his 12 pitches for strikes, with six topping 100 mph, including his first career offering at 101.5 mph.

“First call to the bullpen, a little bit of nerves. But by the time I was running in they had kind of gone away,” said Taylor, who had 15 friends and family in attendance. “Just playing ball again. Halfway through that first at-bat, came back for a second. And then settled down.”

Right-hander Bryse Wilson was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. This chance happened because Taylor excelled at every opportunity.

“Ever since I was a kid, this is what I’ve dreamed of doing,” Taylor said. “It was pretty cool to be able to do it here today. And a good bit of people in the stands and to feel the environment, feel the fans. Being able to put up a zero, always imagined a zero, so I’m really happy I walked away with one.”

“Very excited about Grant,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Saw him in Spring Training, the stuff is very good. Made the transition to a reliever. Will be using him out of the ‘pen here. Find some spots for him here over the next couple of days and see how his role evolves.”

Taylor, 23, was moved to the Birmingham bullpen last month and has been a late-inning force for the Barons with nine straight scoreless appearances, including back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. He has struck out 18 against one walk in 9 1/3 innings of relief.

For the season, Taylor has a 1.01 ERA in 15 games with 37 strikeouts, 11 walks and a .135 average against over 26 2/3 innings.

“I’ve established the fastball pretty well this year,” Taylor said. “All my offspeed has been really good. My cutter has been something I can rely on a lot of time this year. Curveball has been great, slider has been good. It’s a little bit different. Not as planned out.

“You don’t have the five days' rest. It’s the same job, just shorter stints.”

A right lat issue limited Taylor, who was coming off Tommy John surgery when he was selected in the second round of the ’23 Draft, to 19 1/3 innings during his ’24 Minor League campaign. He still posted a minuscule 1.13 ERA over 16 innings in four starts for Single-A Kannapolis and struck out 32 in five total outings.

Those numbers were the appetizers to Taylor’s Cactus League showing. He hit 101.2 mph during an initial outing against the Royals in Surprise, Ariz. on Feb. 23 and struck out six in two innings to finish off the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch on March 8.

At the end of Spring Training, Taylor talked to MLB.com about the possibilities of getting to the Majors through the bullpen despite feeling strongly he is a starter. Taylor’s current bullpen work does not mean an eventual return to the rotation has been ruled out, with Taylor enjoying his new role but adding, “We’ll see,” when asked if he still sees himself back to pitching every fifth day.

“We had to manage his innings regardless this year based on his history,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said. “Obviously it's a very talented arm and there's different ways to develop players. We know that although we've got him in shorter stints right now, we're certainly not closing the door on him being a starter in the future.

“You look at as close of an example as Garrett Crochet and his bullpen days and then transitioning to be a starter and what that has done for Garrett's career and has done for the White Sox. As for right now, we've got him in these shorter stints and I think the most important thing is he's healthy and he's performing very well."

Venable’s guess was that Taylor eventually turns into a normally used reliever this season, but they will protect him early and avoid back-to-backs, as an example.

“There’s going to be a plan in place where we could have multiple innings or one-up from him,” Venable said. “You won’t see that in the first couple of outings, but it’s something he was working toward in the Minor Leagues and will continue to work toward here.”

“He’s just got to know that he’s good,” White Sox reliever Steven Wilson said. “He belongs here and just keep going out and doing what he’s been doing.”