Mariners call up prospect Taylor from Double-A Arkansas
Josh Kirshenbaum
SEATTLE — MLB Pipeline’s prospect re-rankings are due to come out in the next week. But on Saturday morning, Troy Taylor got an even better sort of promotion.
Ahead of the second game of their series against the Mets, the Mariners selected Taylor’s contract, calling up the right-handed reliever — their No. 23 prospect, according to Pipeline — straight from Double-A Arkansas.
If the 22-year-old Taylor appears in a game for his big league debut, he’ll become the youngest Mariners pitcher to take the hill since Andrés Muñoz in 2021.
Seattle picked Taylor in the 12th round of the 2022 Draft, a year after the club picked him in the 20th round and failed to sign him. An infielder throughout high school, Taylor began pitching in college — first at Long Beach State, then at Cyprus (Calif.) College and finally at UC Irvine, where he had 42 strikeouts and a 3.82 ERA in 2022.
Getting started in the Minors last season, Taylor struck out 51 batters in 35 innings at Single-A Modesto before getting promoted to High-A Everett to finish the season.
In 40 games between Everett and Arkansas this year, Taylor logged a 1.27 ERA and a 0.84 WHIP in 42 2/3 innings, with 45 strikeouts against 14 walks, and racked up 21 saves — second-most in the Minors.
He utilizes a standard fastball-slider mix, though his heater — which can get up to 98 mph — is anything but ordinary. Taylor has said that he throws it with a four-seam grip, but it runs like a two-seamer — thanks to his arm slot. His slider is modeled after Matt Brash’s.
And like Brash, Taylor is set to make his Major League debut without throwing a single pitch at Triple-A. He’s the first prospect to skip Tacoma on his way to Seattle this year, and the first pitcher to do so since Emerson Hancock did so last August.
When he takes the mound, Taylor will be the fourth Mariner to make his big league debut, joining Jonatan Clase (now in Toronto), Ryan Bliss and Tyler Locklear.
In a corresponding move, the Mariners optioned Eduard Bazardo to Triple-A Tacoma. Bazardo, who logged a 6.62 ERA in 13 appearances in a previous stint in Seattle, did not appear in a game between getting called up on Thursday and being sent back down after the Mariners’ win over the Mets on Friday.
