Brayden Taylor dreamed of playing in the MLB when he was a child, and the infielder from West Jordan, Utah took one big step closer to that dream on Sunday.
The TCU baseball standout was the No. 19 overall pick of the 2023 MLB Draft on Sunday night by the Tampa Bay Rays, and after he was selected, Xavier Scruggs asked Taylor if the moment compares to what he thought it would be when he imagined it from his childhood.
“This definitely tops it,” Taylor admitted. “I mean this is still just such a surreal feeling, I’m just very grateful for everything and this awesome.”
Taylor had a phenomenal three-year career for the Horned Frogs, starting in all but one of his 184 career game appearances with a .315 career batting average.
He continued to become more and more dangerous at the plate throughout his career, hitting 12 home runs as a freshman and 23 as a junior in the final season of his career. And apparently, that ability to steadily improve is what he believes lead to him the the position he’s in now.
“Just continuing to get one percent better each day, and that’s the same mindset I’m going to take into this organization, so I’m very grateful for the Rays for selecting me and I’m just ready to get to work,” Taylor said.
Taylor brings experience, production, and apparently a great work ethic with him to Tampa Bay, and it’ll be interesting to see how his game translates at the professional level.
More on the 2023 MLB Draft
The 2023 Major League Baseball Draft will begin during All-Star week, with the first two rounds getting underway at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. Rounds 3-10 will then begin at 2 p.m. ET on Monday, July 10, with rounds 11-20 starting at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 11.
This year’s MLB Draft is a historic one, as a draft lottery was used to determine the order for the first time. The Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Oakland Athletics each had a 16.5% chance to receive the No. 1 overall pick. Ultimately, Pittsburgh won the right to have the first selection, with Washington finishing right behind them at No. 2. Oakland, however, fell all the way down to No. 6 overall.
Within the first ten rounds of the draft, each slot is assigned a certain value. Each team has a bonus pool that they are able to spend on these picks, and players will sign at, above or below their assigned slot value.
In rounds 11-20, there is no assigned slot value. MLB teams are free to spend up to $150,000 to sign their picks from the second half of the draft. If they exceed the $150,000 mark, that added amount will be deducted from their bonus pool.
Following the final day of the 2023 MLB Draft, selected players will have until August 1 to sign a contract.
More must-reads: