According to Jay Cohen of the Associated Press on Wednesday, the Chicago Cubs signed starting pitcher Jameson Taillon to a four-year contract worth $68 million. Taillon, who will be making $17 million per year from 2003 to 2026, represents Canada internationally in baseball as both of his parents were born in Canada. Jameson’s mother Christie is from Toronto, and his father Michael is from St. Andrews West, Ontario. Both Christie and Michael attended the University of Toronto.
The Cubs will be Taillon’s third Major League team. He has previously played four seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2016 to 2019, and the last two seasons with the New York Yankees in 2021 and 2022. In 32 games this past season with the Yankees, Taillon had a record of 14 wins and five losses, with an earned run average of 3.91. In 177 1/3 innings pitched, Taillon gave up 168 hits, 77 earned runs, and 32 walks, to go along with 151 strikeouts and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.12.
There is no doubt that Taillon was an instrumental part of the Yankees starting rotation in 2022 that won the American League East. Now he will join a Cubs starting pitching rotation that is led by ace and former Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman, and includes Mexican Javier Assad, and American Adrian Sampson.
