Corey Taylor gets noticed with Marcos Molina off to the side
By Matthew Cerrone | 9:24AM
Less than a year and a half ago, MLB.com considered then 19-year-old Mets RHP Marcos Molina to be the organization's top pitching prospect. He then had Tommy John surgery, missed an entire season and dropped to fourth on MLB.com's 2016 list last summer.
Molina, now 21, tossed a bullpen session Saturday a few feet away from Dan Warthen, Terry Collins, Sandy Alderson and his staff...
The only problem is that Warthen, Collins and Alderson were barely watching him, instead they all focused in on their 2015 seventh-round draft pick, Corey Taylor, who is a non-roster invitee to camp...
Warthen paid particular attention to Taylor, 24, going so far as to stand in as a hitter against him....
Pitching strictly in relief for Single-A St. Lucie last season, Taylor had 20 saves and a 1.87 ERA in 45 appearances, during which he struck out 45 batters in 53 innings.
"He's meant to be reliever, looms like Heath Bell," a person who Taylor last season told me. "He uses a mid-level arm slot and gets a lot of downward rotation on his fastball, which makes his slider equally effective. The Mets must love how pounds the bottom of the strike zone, which is probably what they were looking to see yesterday."
I doubt he's being considered for the big-league pen. Instead, the higher ups likely wanted to know what to have him work on this season when he probably elevates to Double-A.
"He needs to calm down his delivery," I was told. "He's aggressive and has a lot of wasted movement."
