Every young child has picked up a ball, a bat or a glove and dreamed of being on the grandest stage in the Major Leagues and facing the greatest baseball players in the world, and, in that way, Dodgers catching prospect, Carson Taylor, is no different than any other kid. 

But, his dreams started earlier than most and were on a grander scale.

Taylor not only dreamed of being a professional baseball player, and eventually a big leaguer, he’s always had dreams of being the best and now e’s living out that dream.

Village of Influences

Taylor has put an unknown amount of hours into perfecting his game for as long as he can remember and that process of work has put him in an elite category of baseball players.  He was taught priceless lessons in life early on by his dad who Carson considers to be the biggest influence of his career.  His dad taught him to love baseball, how to become consistent, how to go with the flow and how to earn everything you get.  Because of those lessons he has learned how to maximize his skills, and as the years have gone on those skills have grown to become big league caliber. 

“There are no words to describe how important my family has been to me. All of the support, love and stability they have given me throughout this process and my whole life has been huge.  To this day I still hit B.P. off of my dad if I’m struggling to hit because he has always given me the ability to just relax and enjoy life.  My dad taught me how to just enjoy what I’m doing and to enjoy the process and how to handle the ups and downs by going with the flow and to take what you earn.”

Elite Prep

As you can tell by his comments, Taylor comes from a close-knit family that has given him every opportunity to grow as a person and as a player and he has taken advantage of his opportunities at every turn.  

In High School Taylor was a 2-time All-Stater, a 2-time Perfect Game Honorable Mention All-American, and made the Atlanta Braves High School All-Star Team.  After High School Taylor chose to play at Virginia Tech after falling in love with the school during his visit.  

 “The decision to go to Tech became a no brainer after my visit. As soon as I got on campus I got to talk to a lot of the coaches, I got to talk to Coach Szefc and I loved the direction they were taking the program.  I absolutely loved the school first and foremost, I loved the coaches and what they were building at Tech, and I was going to get a chance to compete for playing time right away. I had such a great experience there because it’s such a great place.  When you get there they tell you that it is home and they are not lying about that.  I loved all my coaches at Tech and Szefc became like a 2nd dad for me and taught me how to handle myself like a professional ”

During his Freshman year and the following Summer Taylor got to experience some adversity, due to injuries, that he had never had to deal with much to that point in his career.  After getting off to a good start at Tech he broke his hamate bone towards the end of his Freshman season.  

Hamate bones aren’t the most devastating things to break, and the surgery isn’t extraordinarily complicated, but it does make it tough to swing a bat at a high level for a fairly extended period of time. Taylor had never had to deal with being in and out of the lineup due to injuries so that was frustrating for him.

“That was probably the thing that hurt the most is that I had never really been a kid that had struggled with injuries up until that point and that was one of those seasons where I was in and out of the lineup trying to get over injuries here and there.  Then, obviously, at the end of the year, the Hammate bone hurt because I wanted to play and we ended up coming very close to making the tournament and we fell short because we basically ran out of people because of injuries and stuff like that.” 

Taylor rehabbed very diligently and decided to make his return in the Cape Cod league that summer after his Freshman year. 

The Cape Cod league has long been known as the standard bearer for Summer Collegiate leagues so the competition is tough enough as it is.  Add in coming off of rehab, the fact that Taylor had only taken 1 round of BP and hadn’t played in 3 months, and the difficulty multiplied by infinity.  As a result, Taylor struggled upon his return, started his Summer 0-14,  and experienced more failure than he had ever had to deal with in his baseball career.

Baseball had delivered it’s first true blow to the talented young Taylor but it didn’t take him long to put everything into perfect perspective. With a laugh and a smile and great perspective this is what he had to say about that experience

“Looking back on it, it probably wasn’t the greatest decision in terms of how I played, and I didn’t do myself any favors coming off of 1 round of B.P.  Although I had missed 3 months I thought I’d go up there and try it and try to play in the Cape.”

As he was chuckling about how difficult of a situation he had put himself in he added:

“My first 14 at bats, well, they weren’t great. But, honestly, I really needed an experience like that because I basically got punched in the mouth by this game.  I had always been blessed to be pretty successful at pretty much any level I had played at to that point, so to have a couple weeks where I struggled that badly, injury not withstanding, you know, its one of those experiences you don’t like, so it forced me to buckle down on what I wanted to focus on going into the next season at Tech” 

Fuel for the Fire 

Taylor used his experience in the Cape and made it fuel to his fire, worked harder than ever, and posted a record-breaking Sophomore season as a Hokie. As a Sophomore, in a shortened season due to Covid, the switch-hitting catcher set the schools best ever fielding percentage as a catcher, had the most putouts by a catcher in a single game, the most assists by a catcher in a single, game and became a 3rd Team All American.

He was also put on the Buster Posey Catcher of the Year watch list, and also became the Virginia Sports Information Director All State Catcher of the year.  

“My Sophomore season was one of the big culminations for me.  The work process that went into that season, and then to see it all unfold on the field with a very talented team, and we were doing well was great.  It stinks that the season got cut short but the fact that the team was doing so well and I got to put my best foot forward was a great experience.”

Taylor was in a great position after his Sophomore season as he had posted an incredible year, and still had 2 years remaining at Virginia Tech, so, when the 2020 draft was reduced to just 5 rounds, while that reduction made things stressful, he had a great situation at Tech to fall back upon.

As a result, Draft day was very intense, and was filled full of a wide range of emotions.

“It was disheartning to hear that the draft was only going to be 5 rounds.  I was younger than most of the draft eligible College players and had injuries as a Freshman so I had less playing time than most College players that could have been drafted so it was stressful.  Especially because, with only 5 rounds, the range was pretty much, you either get drafted or you don’t. The night of the draft was probably the quietest our house has ever been. You know, you’re that close to your dreams and so, until I got picked, to say you could cut the tension with a knife would be an understatement.”

Draft to Dodger

Taylor had always dreamed of being a professional baseball player, so although he loved his situation at Virginia Tech, when he got drafted in the 4th round by the Dodgers, it was a pretty easy decision.

After the 2020 Minor League season was canceled due to Covid, Taylor was sent to the Alternate site and then the Instructional league.  So, although his statistical career had been postponed, he still got a good amount of valuable experience in 2020.

“I got sent out to the Alt site and I got a month out there which was awesome just to be around all of these successful guys, the top prospects in the organization and around guys with such great experience. Then I got sent out to the Instructional League and that was a little more extended and that was where I got introduced to the game action and got a pretty good representation of what playing professional baseball was going to be like, so I got a lot of the growing pains out of the way out there.”

Skill Set

In 2021 Taylor had a very good offensive season hitting .278 with an OPS of .804. Last year, in 2022, was somewhat frustrating because he was put on the IL on 3 different occasions and was forced to deal with a bunch of stops and starts. His offensive numbers suffered a touch due to his injuries in 2022, especially in the power department, but he finished strong hitting .286 in September, so he carried good momentum into the off-season.

 One thing that sticks out about Taylor’s offense is that, in 2021, his pull percentage was 38%, and then an opposite field percentage of 36%.  So, like all great hitters, he has a natural ability to use all fields very well and, as you’ll see in the video, can do so with power.  

His Pull % was up to 47% last year, but, again, takeaways are tough due to his time spent on the Injured List.

Hitting to all fields is something that he learned early in his life playing baseball 

“As a kid I was taught to step straight to the pitcher so I was basically crossing myself over and hit almost every ball to left field. I made an adjustment and opened my stance so then I could go to right field with it so which helped me become more of a complete hitter.”

Taylor is trying to add more power to his game and his first homerun in the Dodgers organization showed just how much power he has. Taylor just destroyed his first homerun in the Dodgers organization over the right field wall.

Taylor is also a switch hitter so his splits should continue to show that he will be able to hit both left-handed and right-handed pitching.  

Taylor is a strong offensive prospect that has shown the ability to be very consistent as a catcher as evidenced by his Sophomore season at Virginia Tech where he set the schools all time fielding percentage record.  He is good at blocking balls in the dirt, has a quick release and is working very hard to get better and better defensively.

Dodgers Catchers

It is no secret that the Dodgers are very deep at the catcher position throughout the organization.  Will Smith is coming off of a tremendous year and he is just 26 years old, and don’t forget that Austin Barnes was unbelievably instrumental in the 2020 World Championship.  Diego Cartaya is ranked by MLB.com as the #1 prospect in the entire organization and is just 20 years old, Hunter Feduccia had a good year last year and made it to AAA and is getting better and better. The Dodgers drafted Dalton Rushing who was a superstar in his short season, and Yeiner Fernandez is a top 30 prospect as well, and Ryan January is one of the most respected player in the organization

But, switch-hitting catchers that hit as well as Taylor can to all fields and has his kind of power potential are rare, and his offense from the catcher’s position has the potential to be elite.  Combine that with his growing defensive game, elite perspective, and work ethic and it is an easy evaluation to make that he is a prospect with an exciting future.  

Taylor has always had a dream of becoming a professional baseball player, a dream that seems so huge to so many.  But, through his hard work, through his great perspective, and through his belief in himself, he has shown that “There’s No  Dream Too Big.”

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