If there's anyone on the Chicago White Sox that doesn't get the credit they deserve for 2025, it's rookie relief pitcher Grant Taylor.
Taylor made his highly anticipated MLB debut back in June, and he clearly had the potential to be a force in the White Sox bullpen. Chicago made the choice to move the former starting pitcher to a relief role in Double-A, and he proceeded to throw 9.1 scoreless innings with 18 strikeouts after the change.
With a fastball touching 100 mph consistently and a wipeout breaking ball, there are few young pitchers with the swing-and-miss stuff of Grant Taylor. It immediately translated to the big leagues, but a series of unlucky breaks blemished his numbers.
Taylor had a strong month of September, bringing his inflated season ERA down to 4.91 in 36 appearances out of the White Sox bullpen.
But if we look at his dominance over the final month of the season and the advanced analytics from his rookie campaign, we have every reason to believe that Grant Taylor is going to be the next great White Sox closer starting in 2026.
Taylor closed the 2025 season strong
From August 30 until the end of the regular season, Taylor made 10 appearances out of the White Sox bullpen and did not allow a single run over 9.0 innings.
He struck out 16 batters in those 9.0 innings, had a FIP of 0.25, and a WHIP under 1.00. That's pure dominance, which led to a 2-0 record with two (2) saves and two (2) holds.
That was a sneak peak for White Sox fans and the rest of baseball into what Grant Taylor is capable of. This is the type of stuff the organization saw in Double-A, which made them confident that he could contribute at the Major League level.
It's also why the White Sox turned away calls about him at this year's trade deadline.
Taylor's metrics are way better than his numbers
Still, Taylor won't get much national attention because a.) he plays for the 60-102 White Sox and b.) his 4.91 ERA doesn't jump off the page.
The underlying metrics, though, suggest that Taylor was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. Baseball Savant has Taylor's expected ERA at 2.88 and the expecting batting average against at .219 based on the quality of contact he allowed.
He is elite in whiff rate, K-rate, barrel rate, and ground ball rate. That means Taylor misses a lot of bats and generates a ton of soft contact, usually on the ground. He just got unlucky with some of those batted ball results this year.
Even with his ERA up near 5.00, Taylor posted a 1.7 fWAR this season, which was tied for fourth best on the White Sox.
Over a larger sample size, these things tend to straighten themsleves out and come back to the mean. We saw that in the month of September, and had there been another month of the season for Taylor to pitch in, he probably would have continued to drastically lower his ERA.
If he wins the closer job next season, don't be surprised if Grant Taylor is pushing 30 saves and is one of the most electric relief arms in baseball. His stats from 2025 are deceiving.