Taylor Released By Mariners

June 26, 1999 / 6:47 PM EDT / AP

Left-hander Brien Taylor, the top pick in the 1991 amateur draft, has been released by the Seattle Mariners after failing to get past extended spring training in Arizona.

"We just didn't see what we wanted to," Mariners assistant player development director Greg Hunter said Saturday. "He showed some arm strength, but just no consistency."

The Mariners brought Taylor, 27, to spring training in Peoria, Ariz., as a minor league free agent. They intended to have him pitch at Double-A New Haven in the Eastern League. But he wasn't ready after spring training and he didn't progress in April and May.

He was released at the start of June. The Mariners didn't make an announcement about his release.

"He just wasn't ready to go," Hunter said. "He was struggling getting out hitters at the extended level, which are young guys just out of high school or the Latin countries."

Taylor has struggled since undergoing reconstructive surgery on his pitching shoulder in December 1993. He was injured in a fight with a childhood friend.

He got a $1.55 million bonus, then a record for a draft pick, in August 1991 when he signed a contract with the New York Yankees.

The Mariners signed him after his minor league contract with the Yankees ran out.

At Class A Greensboro in 1998, he was 0-1 with a 9.59 ERA in 13 games, including one start. Since his surgery, he has pitched in 41 minor league games.

At Double-A Albany in 1993, he was 13-7 with a 3.48 ERA in 27 starts with 150 strikes in 163 innings.

Hunter said Taylor displayed a fastball with an average velocity of 86-87 mph in Arizona. Before being injured, he had a 99 mph fastball.

"He has a good arm and he's a left-hander and that's why we took a chance on him," Hunter said. "But it just wasn't there. He wasn't making progress like we'd hoped."

The problem wasn't Taylor's attitude, Hunter said.

"He's a good kid and we really liked him," he said. "He worked hard, he went about his business and we enjoyed him. He took it (his release) like a professional. He didn't say much."

Taylor struck out 476 batters in 239 innings in high school at Beaufort, N.C., going 29-6 with a 1.25 ERA.

But then came Dec. 18, 1993, the day that altered his career. He got involved in a fight involving Ron Wilson, a former friend who was on parole, and his brother, Brenden. Brien Taylor wound up with a torn capsule and a torn labrum and was charged with misdemeanor counts of assault and communicating threats, counts dismissed 11 months later by a Carteret County District Court judge.

"He had such a good arm before (his injury) that he could just get away with his stuff," Hunter said. "But he needs an aptitude now. He needs an aptitude to get a feel to pitch to the corners."