Clemson or pro baseball? Looming choice adds unique layer to 2021 for Dutch Fork star

It’s about 90 minutes before one of Dutch Fork baseball’s biggest games of the season and Will Taylor steps in for his first round of batting practice.

There are no fans in the stands yet at Lexington High School, but plenty of eyes and cameras are on the Dutch Fork center fielder. About 30 Major League Baseball scouts and personnel, including a high-ranking official from the Atlanta Braves, are in attendance for the May 6 game.

It was an all-too-familiar scene for Taylor this season. Pro scouts flocked to Dutch Fork baseball games to get a look at Taylor, who is widely considered a first-round prospect in July’s MLB Draft. He signed to play football and baseball for Clemson University, but a lucrative path into pro baseball might be too tough to pass up.

Against Lexington, Taylor put on a display during batting practice with 13 home runs, including three straight to center field.

In the game, Taylor hit two homers, including a three-run, go-ahead shot to right field in the Silver Foxes’ 10-6 win over Lexington that clinched the Region 5-5A championship.

“I love it. It kind of fuels the team a little bit,” Taylor said of having an audience of MLB scouts this year. “Everyone is giving it 100 percent and trying to get some looks. I love it. I am trying to live in the moment and the next game ahead.”

Taylor’s high school playing career came to end in the district championship of the playoffs. He will put on his uniform one final time Tuesday in the S.C. Baseball Coaches All-Star game, setting up an interesting month ahead for the Dutch Fork star who hit .429 with seven homers and 30 RBIs in 2021.

Taylor is not just hearing from MLB scouts — football and baseball coaches from Clemson are regularly in touch with him in the form of phone calls, text messages and mail.

Taylor is scheduled to move in at Clemson on June 25, but there is no guarantee he makes it to campus. The MLB Draft is set for July 11-13, and a first-round selection would bring a multimillion-dollar signing bonus.

The Taylor family will have a big decision to make the next few weeks whether to play professional baseball — or try to play two sports for the Tigers.

“We will have a real good understanding before June 25 if he is going to play baseball or go to Clemson,” said Eddie Taylor, Will’s father. “Don’t really want to take him to Clemson and have to pick him back up.”

Taylor’s rise up the draft boards

Eddie Taylor’s day job is as a dentist in Irmo, but he’s been pulling double-duty as his son Will’s adviser over the last several months.

The Taylors haven’t used an adviser, which is common and legal for high school baseball players, as they contemplate the decision to bypass college and play professional baseball. Eddie Taylor said he has received advice from various people on how to handle things with one thing in mind — there is no blueprint when your son has a chance to be a high draft choice.

Eddie Taylor said his phone has been “melting” over the last several months as the interest in his son increased from MLB teams. That interest started last summer when Will had a strong showing in the East Coast Pro Showcase, which featured some of the top high school players in the country.

About 10 to 15 MLB scouts were on the sidelines during Will’s football games at Dutch Fork in the fall, the father said. It was Will’s first full season at Dutch Fork after spending more than two years of his high school career at Ben Lippen. Taylor played three sports at Ben Lippen, won two individual wrestling state championships and was part of the Falcons’ SCISA Class 3A track championship in 2017.

Will Taylor had nothing but good things to say about his time at Ben Lippen, but he felt the move was best for his athletic career. Taylor’s family lives in Irmo, where Dutch Fork is located, and they had a prior relationship with Dutch Fork football coach Tom Knotts.

Taylor attended a couple Dutch Fork games each year while playing at Ben Lippen.

He transferred to Dutch Fork in January of 2020 and juggled football and baseball in the spring and summer. He was named the starting quarterback for the Silver Foxes, who had won four straight Class 5A championships before he arrived.

Taylor led Dutch Fork to another championship, defeating T.L. Hanna 28-6, in a rain-soaked Charlie Johnson Field at Benedict College. He threw for 147 yards, rushed for 82 and two touchdowns in the win.

“It was what we were working for all year long,” Will Taylor said after the game. “For these boys five in a row and for me one. I had a great season with my boys and I’m very thankful for them.”

After football season ended, Taylor shifted to baseball mode — that’s when attention from MLB scouts really started to grow. He met with all 30 pro teams via Zoom before his baseball season started. Scouts typically come in for in-home visits with top prospects but couldn’t because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“I wouldn’t be on the Zooms with him but I would walk past and hear him. From the first team to the last team, it has been a good experience. He has grown up,” Eddie Taylor said. “Before this whole thing started, I gave him some advice. It told him to have fun, you only get one chance to be a high school senior. Number two, play the game like your hair was on fire and bond with those kids in the dugout and focus on winning a championship.

“We will deal with all scouts and all the noise when the season is over.”

‘My favorite player in the draft’

Most publications and mock drafts have Taylor going in the first round.

Baseball America has him as the 32nd-best player, high school or college, in the entire draft. ESPN projected him to go with the 20th overall pick to the New York Yankees while MLB.com has him going No. 25 to the Oakland A’s.

If the projections hold up, Taylor would be the first Midlands high school player to be drafted in the first round since Lexington’s Nick Ciuffo went 21st overall to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013.

Former Blythewood standout Jordyn Adams went to the Los Angeles Angels with the 17th overall pick in the 2018 draft, but he finished his career with Green Hope High School in North Carolina. Adams’ first contract was worth $4.1 million, with a slot value of $3,472,900.

MLB uses what’s known as “slot value” for each pick in the first 10 rounds — to guide how much bonus money they can offer a draftee — and this year’s values will be the same as they were in 2020. First-round slot values range from $8.4 million for the first overall pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates to $2.4 million for the Los Angeles Dodgers with the last pick in the first round.

Eddie Taylor declined to say whether the family has floated a dollar figure to MLB teams in order to bypass college — a common gesture that high school prospects and their families make while deciding their future.

Jim Callis, senior writer for MLB Pipeline and MLB.com, told The State that Taylor is his favorite player in this year’s draft and that he is a lot more polished than many of the two-sport athletes he has seen.

“He is athletic but he is not raw. ... He is not one of those guys where there is a lot of swing and miss,” Callis said. “He has hit good competition when he has faced it in the summer and can make adjustments during games. He is a plus-plus runner and he is driving the ball well. You don’t often see that with multi-sport guys.

“I just think the combination with his tools and skills are more advanced than you would expect.”

Like Callis, Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo loves Taylor’s athleticism and speed. He said another thing working in Taylor’s favor this year is that teams seem to be more comfortable taking a less-experienced high school player higher in the draft rather than a college player.

“It seemed that all spring he has steadily climbed up draft boards,” Collazo said. “I think scouts are intrigued by his athleticism, his speed and ability to hit. When you put all of those tools together plus a profile out of high school, there is a lot to like about him from the baseball draft standpoint.”

The Clemson factor

Callis said one of the few questions that scouts have is about how strong Taylor’s desire is to go to Clemson and play two sports. Taylor grew up a Clemson fan, and the thought of playing two sports at his favorite school is definitely on his mind. .

“Not many people have the opportunity to play both at such a high-caliber college, one of the best in the nation,” Taylor said.

He attended Clemson’s spring football game in March this month, and he hears from a Clemson football or baseball coach every day or every other day to check up on him.

“It is just a lot of love and I am glad to hear from them,” he said.

Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney can be very persuasive but might have his hands full this summer with Taylor and Bubba Chandler, who like Taylor is signed to play football and baseball at Clemson and is projected to go in the first round of the MLB Draft.

MLB.com has Chandler going to the Cincinnati Reds with the 17th overall pick. Callis called Chandler, who is a pitcher and shortstop, the best two-way high school-prospect in the draft.

“Clemson gets an A-plus for dream building with these kids, not just my son,” Eddie Taylor said. “Built a dream with kids to put on the orange and play on the baseball or football field. If I woke him up in the middle of night, I guarantee you he is thinking about running down the hill at Memorial Stadium and stealing bases at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

“If you ask me right now, I would say Will is going to Clemson, going to play two sports and he is going to have a blast. But we will see if baseball comes in and derails that.”