The White Sox are going bold.
According to James Fox of FutureSox, the team is promoting right-handed pitching prospect Grant Taylor from Double-A Birmingham. He is expected to join the club for their upcoming series in Houston.
Taylor, 23, was originally drafted out of LSU in the second round of the 2023 MLB Draft. He doesn’t possess a significant track record, as injuries put a halt to his development. He missed all of the 2023 season prior to being drafted after undergoing Tommy John surgery and logged just 16 innings with Single-A Kannapolis last year. However, he’s now healthy and showing flashes of his high ceiling.
Ranked the No. 6 prospect in the White Sox farm system, Taylor has spent all of the 2025 campaign in Double-A Birmingham, where he’s gone 6-3 with a 1.35 ERA over 26.2 innings thrown. Six of his 15 appearances were starts earlier in the year before transitioning to the bullpen. Since becoming a reliever to help manage his workload, Taylor has been dominant, throwing 8.2 scoreless innings while striking out 16 and walking just one batter. As a reliever, the righty has also seen a noticeable uptick in velocity, as he’s touched 101 mph with his fastball.
Projected as a starter long term, there were some questions around Taylor’s move to the bullpen. GM Chris Getz offered the following reasoning when speaking with the media earlier this year:
“It’s not like he was struggling as a starter, but his stuff has looked really sharp coming out of the ‘pen. In the short term, we want to see how he adjusts and how effective he can be in that role, while knowing we can always transition him back to a starter. We’ve seen examples, Garrett Crochet being a great one, of pitchers starting in the bullpen before successfully returning to the rotation. Around the league, we’re also seeing teams turn relievers into productive starters after strong offseasons.”
With the White Sox still searching for stability at the back end of the bullpen, Taylor could have an opportunity to compete for the closer role while continuing to develop toward a long-term future as a starting pitcher.
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