Preview of the Texas Rangers 2024 Draft: Will Taylor

2024 MLB Draft Preview: Scouting report by Will Taylor

The 2024 MLB Draft is less than a week away – the first round begins on July 14, 2024 – so it’s time to offer capsule views on players who Texas Rangers with their top picks. The Rangers’ first-round pick is No. 30, their second-round pick is No. 65, and their third-round pick is No. 103.

Leading up to draft day, we’re going to outline some players that could be selected by the Rangers with one of their first three picks. I’ll note that we haven’t really done that in recent years because the Rangers picked early in the draft, which meant only a handful of players were really in play with their first-round pick, and because they didn’t have their second and third-round picks.

Today we look at college outfielder Will Taylor.

Will Taylor is a right-handed outfielder listed at 6’1″ and 175 pounds by BA and 5’10” and 190 pounds by MLB Pipeline. He turned 21 years old in January of this year. Coming out of Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, South Carolina, he was the 21st overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft on BA’s list, but had a firm commitment to Clemson University to play both football and baseball. The Rangers ultimately drafted him in the 19th round, despite knowing they probably wouldn’t be able to sign him.

Questions about Taylor’s hitting power were why he wasn’t ranked higher out of high school, and his time at Clemson didn’t assuage those concerns. Taylor is credited with the potential to be a good hitter, but he needs to work on his swing and pitch recognition. He was good at getting counts and drawing walks, but he didn’t do enough when he put the ball in play. He’s not big and isn’t expected to have a lot of power, so he needs to make progress on his hitting tool going forward.

Taylor was very fast out of high school, which made him a sought-after wide receiver. However, he suffered a torn ACL in his freshman year of football, an injury that also cost him most of his first season of baseball. Since the injury, his speed has not been the same, and reports of his speed vary from average to above average. He played left field at Clemson because Clemson has Cam Cannarella, a better defensive outfielder, at center. However, Taylor will likely start his career in center field and has a chance to stay at that position.

In his abbreviated freshman season, Taylor managed a batting average of .260/.397/.320 in 63 plate appearances in 13 games. In 2023, his only full, healthy season at Clemson, Taylor managed a batting average of .362/.489/.523 with 48 walks against 56 Ks, five home runs in 281 plate appearances, and 11 of 11 stolen bases. This year, Taylor had a disappointing start to the year, then his season was over due to a broken left wrist. In 145 plate appearances in 32 games, he managed a batting average of .230/.465/.480, with 33 walks and a whopping 11 HBPs against 26 Ks. He increased his home run count from five to seven despite barely having half as many plate appearances as the year before, but his BABIP was just .239.

List of the top 500 baseball players in America currently has Taylor ranked 163rd. MLB Pipeline has Taylor ranked 203rd in their rankingKeith Law does not have Taylor on his board. Kiley McDaniel has Taylor at number 84 on his ranking list. Fangraphs has not found Cijntje on their top 30 list.

I haven’t seen Taylor appear in most of the mock drafts out there. Kiley McDaniels latest mock draft has Taylor in the group of college players who should go in the second or third round.

I’m writing about Taylor because he was someone the Rangers obviously liked enough to take a 19th-round pick three years ago, even though they knew they almost certainly wouldn’t be able to sign him. If you remember, when Aaron Zavala’s medical revealed an issue and he ended up getting a smaller bonus than expected, a lot of people wondered if that would mean the Rangers would sign Taylor. However, the Zavala savings weren’t nearly enough to buy out Taylor’s Clemson commitment, and instead the savings were used to give Kyle Larsen a $575,000 signing bonus and Tucker Mitchell a $375,000 signing bonus.

I could see Taylor going to the Rangers in the second round or later. I haven’t seen anything on the batted ball data for Taylor in 2024, but the increase in home runs is interesting. I’m not sure if he was trying to hit with more power and that affected him in a way that hurt his overall offensive output, or if it was bad luck with the batted balls and the exit velocities and launch angles were still good, or what. What the scouts and the data say about that will impact where he ends up on the boards.

Taylor had never focused exclusively on baseball until a year ago. In addition to playing football in high school and college, he was also a high school wrestler, and a team drafting Taylor might believe that by pursuing baseball full-time, he will develop better than one would expect from a college junior.

Previously:

Tyson Lewis

Theodore Gillen

Carter Johnson

Caleb Lomavita

Kellon Lindsey

Dakota Jordan

Kaelen Culpepper

Malcolm Moore

Tommy White

Ryan Waldschmidt

Griff O’Ferrall

Walker Janek

Wyatt Sanford

Kevin Bazzell

Slade Caldwell

Ryan Johnson

Lukas Holman

Ryan Sloan

Jonathan Santucci

Kash Mayfield

Jacob Cozart

Brody Brecht

Billy Amick

Jurrangelo Cijntje