The trade deadline is barely a week away, and clubs have already started chopping players left, right, and center. In just the last 24 hours, the Detroit Tigers cut Jake Rogers, while the Seattle Mariners designated Buddy Kennedy for assignment. Another name that found himself on the chopping block was Jameson Taillon of the Chicago Cubs, and while Craig Counsell did mention that it was a difficult decision, his departure is something that his teammates are certainly not taking well.

“It’s pretty much the worst,” Cubs shortstop Nico Hoerner said, as per 104.3 The Score on X. “It’s strange that someone you care about so much to see every day and then a couple of texts and get the news, and it’s just kind of done. When you are together for eight months of the year, he is the person who changes the entire atmosphere of the clubhouse, how the pitchers interact. He keeps the group together. Yeah, he’s the lifelong kind of person that I miss a lot.”

Sitting in second place in the NL Central, the Cubs are actively pushing for a postseason, and that means that their lineup has to remain top-tier. This is where Jameson Taillon’s performance didn’t sit well with the Cubs’ front office, and right before Monday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals, he was designated for assignment.

As a result, Andrew Waltz from Triple-A Iowa has now come to the majors to replace the starting pitcher. Now, that is certainly a blow to the veteran pitcher, who has been with the team since 2023. At the time, he had signed a four-year, $68 million contract, and as of now, he is in the final year of his contract.

Taillon’s struggles have been evident throughout the ongoing season via the long ball, and he is currently one of the top five pitchers who have allowed the most home runs at 25. Mind you, that’s after he was away from action for nearly six weeks nursing his hamstring injury sustained on June 7. He has made two starts since he returned, and both of them have been questionable.

He has surely had some of his best seasons yet in the majors with the Cubs, posting ERAs in the mid-3.00s. Even last October, he shut out the San Diego Padres over four innings in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. However, those days certainly appeared to be behind him this season.

On Sunday, when he took to the field in Pittsburgh, the starting pitcher allowed seven earned runs on six hits and two walks over four innings pitched. The Cubs lost the game 8-7 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. To make matters worse, he surrendered three home runs, bringing his total to five over his last 8.1 innings. Overall, this season he has posted a 2-6 record with a 5.92 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 15 games.

And just like that, the veteran who put up a career 3.99 ERA over 10 years is no longer with the North Siders.

“We just had to make a hard decision as to whether we thought Jameson was going to pitch again,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said at Busch Stadium. “We just didn’t feel like it was going to happen again. Those are hard decisions. It seems like everything is always just a baseball decision and just about production… But, in the end, we just feel like we had to do better in that spot.”

At the time Taillon went on the IL, it was only a matter of time before the questions regarding overcrowding came up. Ben Brown was healthy and was having an absolute breakout year, and even Edward Cabrera was expected to be back from his IL stint. So, maybe, just maybe, this move was inevitable.

With the August 3 trade deadline just a week away, the Cubs will certainly look to add more rotation help, and if their recent move suggests anything, they are not willing to compromise on a deep postseason run.