Yankees: Jameson Taillon calls out beat reporter over ‘cherry-picked’ quote

There’s no reprieve in the Bronx when the New York Yankees are playing poorly. The shots just keep on coming and it’s an avalanche of disappointment and tension.

Take the team’s latest loss, for instance. Coming off getting swept by the Detroit Tigers in arguably the most embarrassing performance by any team thus far in 2021, the Yankees followed that up with an absolute stinker in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

They still can’t beat the Rays or Jays at Yankee Stadium. Ridiculous. There’s no other way to describe it. The lineup can’t hit. The defense is back to being shoddy. And now, we’ve got a player calling out the media!

Of all people, in fact! Jameson Taillon wasn’t pleased with MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch for “cherry-picking” a quote from his postgame presser.

Taillon called out Hoch on Twitter after spotting Hoch’s original tweet featuring a disheveled picture of the right-hander and the selected quote from his three-minute interview.

Now that the media is getting to the players, it seems like there’s nothing that can’t permeate the locker room, whether it’s bad energy, contagious lackluster play, or even what appears to be criticism.

Yankees starter Jameson Taillon wasn’t happy with beat reporter Bryan Hoch.

Taillon is “worn out” from this? When was the last time he was lambasted (or appeared to be lambasted by the media)? He’s actually one of the few guys who have been given a long leash given all he’s been through the last few years.

His ERA sits at 5.10 on the year. He’s pitched just 47.2 innings across 10 starts. He’s very obviously the worst starter in this rotation. And he’s hardly improving with each and every outing. So yeah, it’s quite notable when the guy who constantly puts the Yankees into early deficits is saying something about not being able to pitch with a lead.

Taillon has either pitched the Yankees into a hole within the first two innings or has given up the lead in EIGHT of his 10 starts this season. That’s probably not Hoch was getting at by using this quote, but that’s just another layer of this to consider when examining Taillon’s callout.

The story over the last seven games (and the whole season, really) has been the Yankees’ putrid offense, so the quote from Taillon was relatable. New York has scored 13 runs in their last seven games and all year have very rarely given the starters a comfortable lead to pitch with. We were all on board with it!

Hoch admitted he wasn’t framing this in a negative fashion, but hey, this is the 2021 New York Yankees. They’re not particularly a tough bunch. They’re certainly not motivated. They seemingly look for excuses (“Baseball is hard, though!) when things aren’t going well. They don’t respond to adversity. The same problems persist and nobody has the answers.

Taillon’s latest response to the media sheds light on pretty much all of that. Was he wrong for responding? Not particularly. But the Yankees have a lot more problems than a beat writer framing a relatively harmless quote to shine more light on the team’s struggles. It’s really the least of anyone’s worries, especially among the players.

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