For the second time this week, we look at a non-roster invite who was a non-roster invite last year as well: Corey Taylor. The now 25 year old was drafted by the Mets in the 7th round of the 2015 draft out of Texas Tech.
From last year’s preview of Corey Taylor:
However, and stop me if you heard this before for non-roster invites, his numbers have been impressive in the minors and forced the issue that we need to talk about him. In his first season in Brooklyn he tossed 18.0 innings over 18 games with a 1.50 ERA with 16 K’s and a 1.000 WHIP. Pretty good.
This is still the case for Taylor. His numbers returned to Earth last year but he went from working in St. Lucie to putting a whole season in Binghamton. In 2015, Taylor posted a 1.50 ERA over 18.0 innings in Brooklyn. Then in 2015 he posted 1.87 ERA over 53.0 innings in St. Lucie. At the end of the season he posted an impressive 1.93 ERA in 14.0 innings in the Fall League.
Last year in Binghamton he posted a 3.61 ERA, 1.332 WHIP in 62.1 innings. Similar to Conlon, when your stuff isn’t overpowering, your numbers will jump in Double A. With a full season of pitching to better players who were a tick older than him (when he dominated in Brooklyn, he was almost a year older than the average player), I’m curious to see how he responds this Spring. He and Conlon also have a lot more competition of relievers that throw much higher coming in from all of the trades at the end of the season. You can never have too many arms, but due to Corey being a right handed thrower and the amount of flamethrowers in the system now, I find it unlikely that he makes it to the 40 man before September.
