Players sometimes announce themselves to the baseball world in the postseason. Last year, Cam Schlittler threw eight shutout innings against Boston in his first postseason outing, giving a sneak preview of this season’s Cy Young campaign. So far in the 2026 playoffs, the breakout pitching star has been Grant Taylor.

The White Sox have won all three playoff games they have played, and two of them are thanks to Taylor’s dominant pitching to close out games. He threw 54 pitches and 2 ⅓ innings to finish off the Wild Card opener against Houston, then recorded a 42-pitch, four-inning save in Division Series Game One in Cleveland. Those are the two longest outings of his MLB career by innings and by pitches thrown, and the workload didn’t appear to faze him at all. It’s a preview of what’s to come in 2027, when the White Sox plan to convert him to a starter.

It’s no surprise that Taylor has been untouchable in the playoffs because he has been just as great since he debuted in June 2025. His 4.91 ERA as a rookie reliever didn’t tell the story—his DRA- was 68, due in part to his 34.4% strikeout rate and zero home runs allowed over 36 ⅔ innings. In 2026, his 2.25 ERA aligned more closely with his 69 DRA- as Chicago slowly stretched him out, giving him 84 innings across 60 appearances in which he struck out 106 of 336 opposing hitters, with a 46.7% groundball rate.

What’s most surprising and impressive is: 1) How well he has held his stuff deeper into games than he’s ever pitched before at the MLB level, and 2) His command of his four-pitch arsenal. Here are his usage and stuff metrics from the regular season: