Brayden Kerry Taylor (born May 22, 2002) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

in the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. They are one of two major ...

organization.

Amateur career

Taylor went to Copper Hills High School located in

West Jordan, Utah West Jordan is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is a suburb of Salt Lake City. According to the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 116,961, placing it as the third most populous in the state. The city occupies the sou ...

, where he played on their

team. He achieved all-state honors as a junior in 2019 after he batted .443 with ten stolen bases. He was ranked No. 188 in the nation by Perfect Game heading into his senior season. He only played in three games during his senior season in 2020 due to it being cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He went unselected in the

2020 Major League Baseball draft The 2020 Major League Baseball draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season standings. In ad ...

, and enrolled at

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

(TCU) to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

. Taylor was named TCU's starting third baseman as a freshman in 2021. Over 58 starts, he batted .324 with a team-high 12 home runs, 53 RBIs, 49 walks and 15 stolen bases alongside a .924

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

. He was named the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

Freshman of the Year. In the summer he played for the

Falmouth Commodores The Falmouth Commodores are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Commodores play their home games at Arnie All ...

of the

Cape Cod League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 forme ...

. He batted .269/.361/.385, and on defense split his time between second base and third base. As a sophomore in 2022, Taylor played in 59 games (58 starts) and hit .314 with 13 home runs, fifty RBIs, and 55 walks compared to forty strikeouts. After the season, he briefly played in the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 forme ...

with the

, batting .242. He was also named to and played with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.

Professional career

Taylor was selected by the

in the first round, with the 19th overall selection, of

2023 Major League Baseball draft The 2023 Major League Baseball draft took place on July 9–11, 2023, in Seattle. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. For the first time, a draft lottery was used to set a portion of the draft order. The first six selections ...

. On July 21, 2023, Taylor signed with the Rays on for the full-slot value of $3,880,100.

References

External links

TCU Horned Frogs bio
2002 births Living people Baseball players from Utah Sportspeople from West Jordan, Utah Baseball third basemen Falmouth Commodores players TCU Horned Frogs baseball players United States national baseball team players Florida Complex League Rays players Charleston RiverDogs players Bowling Green Hot Rods players 21st-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-shortstop-stub