Pirates preventing Jameson Taillon from pitching in 2020

A pitcher who has already had all too much of his baseball career affected by injury and health, Jameson Taillon acknowledges that he’s allowed the fierce competitor inside of him to lobby to return to a major-league mound in 2020.

“Yeah, I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t thought about it,” the Pittsburgh Pirates ace said during a conference call Monday, “but it gets shot down pretty quickly when I bring it up.”

The unique circumstances of the coronavirus-impacted season at least opened up a window in which Taillon theoretically could pitch in 2020. With the MLB season in limbo as a result of a suspension of play relating to covid-19 concerns, it’s possible – if not likely – that if this season is played at all that it will extend deeper into late autumn and perhaps even winter as part of the scramble to get in as many games as possible.

With Taillon recovering from Tommy John surgery he underwent last August and that rehab pegged in the 12-month range, it’s much more feasible that the righthander could pitch in 2020 now than it was under conventional circumstances when the regular season ends in September.