Final word on Will Taylor, Bubba Chandler: What we’re hearing as MLB Draft arrives
—— UPDATE: Neither player was selected Sunday night in the first round of the Major League Baseball 2021 draft. Both could be drafted Monday in Rounds 2 or 3 and still opt to choose pro baseball over Clemson. If drafted, they’ll have until Aug. 1 to decide. ——
This weekend is a big weekend for Clemson athletics and two of its teams’ newcomers.
The Tigers have a pair of two-sport athletes who are both projected to be selected in the first round of the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft that starts Sunday. And both — Will Taylor and Bubba Chandler — are scholarship quarterbacks for the Clemson football team. Taylor also could play receiver for the Tigers, with both positions listed on his football bio online.
Whether you’re just now checking in on their situation or have been following all along, we’ll get you caught up on what has happened, what’s new and what’s at stake this weekend. Here’s the latest on both:
Final projections: Will Taylor
Dutch Fork’s Will Taylor has a chance to be the first Midlands high school player first drafted in the first round since Lexington’s Nick Ciuffo went 21st overall to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013. Only one other Dutch Fork player has been drafted out of high school. The Detroit Tigers took Ryan Macphail in the 47th round of the 2011 MLB Draft.
Taylor hit .450 with seven homers, 33 RBIs and 34 runs scored this season for the Silver Foxes, who advanced to Class 5A district championship. He also stole 21 bases and had an on-base percentage of .586 and an OPS of 1.455 and was named S.C. Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year.
Taylor, a Clemson baseball and football signee, has been on campus at Clemson since June 24. He has been getting reps at quarterback and slot receiver at player-run practices, The State was told.
Taylor was invited to attend the MLB Draft in Colorado but wasn’t one of the eight players who were on the list released this week. He will watch the draft with his family in Clemson.
MLB scouts were at almost all of Taylor’s baseball games at Dutch Fork this season, and about half a dozen showed up to watch him play in the S.C. Baseball Coaches All-Star game last month.
Taylor has worked out for the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels at their pro ballparks, and also worked out for the Boston Red Sox at their training facility in Fort Myers, Florida. Taylor’s workout for the Rangers at Globe Life Field included the club showing a highlight package of him on the stadium’s video board.
Different MLB mock drafts have Taylor in a variety of landing spots from as high as No. 9 to Los Angeles (Baseball America, MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo each have Taylor going No. 16 to the Miami Marlins. The Athletic and ESPN) to No. 23 and the Cleveland Indians (NBC Sports), No. 24 Atlanta Braves (Sporting News) and No. 25 to Oakland A’s (CBS Sports and Fan Graphs).
CBS Sports has Taylor as the 12th-best player in this year’s draft, and MLB.com has him at No. 20.
Should he choose to go pro, the Athletic said Taylor’s signing bonus could be in the $4 million range.
“Taylor is a twitchy athlete with a swing that’s tailored for average as well as a strong arm and plus-plus speed. If he chooses baseball, it’s easy to envision him outperforming his draft slot in due time,” CBS Sports draft profile said of Taylor.
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.”
Final projections: Bubba Chandler
Bubba Chandler was originally committed to Georgia for baseball. He then flipped to Clemson on May 20, 2020 when given the option to play both football (quarterback) and baseball (right-handed pitcher/shortstop) for the Tigers, though his scholarship is for football.
The righty arrived on campus on June 24 and signed an name, image and likeness deal with Barstool Sports on July 6. He also created a profile on the video messaging service Cameo.
Before arriving at Clemson, he closed out his time at North Oconee High School in Georgia with a stellar senior campaign, reaching 97 mph with his fastball, a curveball that sits in the upper 70s and a low 80s changeup. Per the Athens Banner-Herald, he also had an 8-1 record on the mound with a 1.25 ERA while hitting .411 to complement eight home runs. He also pitched one inning lefthanded this spring — he struck out the side with nine pitches — and earned a spot on the Georgia 4A all-state first team and Maxpreps’ All-American second team.
While Chandler has received some looks because of his performance on the mound, some MLB scouts see him as more of an attractive prospect at shortstop. His ability to play both positions effectively adds to his first-round prospect appeal.
According to his MLB.com prospect report: “Chandler’s athleticism and clean arm action and delivery bode well for his control and command, though he’s still learning to harness his enhanced stuff. He’s also an intriguing prospect as a switch-hitting shortstop with solid power potential and speed. He’s believed to prefer baseball, though it remains to be seen how Clemson football will affect his signability.”
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Chandler’s meetings with teams were conducted over Zoom videoconference during the winter. Because of his success in football and baseball, one of the most prevalent questions teams asked was his favorite sport between the two.
In the latest mock drafts released on Friday, ESPN, Baseball America and NBC Sports projected Chandler to go 17th overall to the Cincinnati Reds. The Athletic has him pegged one spot higher, going to the Miami Marlins.
Sporting News projected him as the Atlanta Braves’ pick at No. 24. ESPN also gave the two-sport collegiate athlete a chance of being picked as high as ninth to the Los Angeles Angels — which would be a surprise pick, if the organization doesn’t take Will Taylor, Chandler’s Clemson teammate and fellow quarterback — 13th to the Philadelphia Phillies or 16th as the Marlins’ choice.
MLB.com released its final mock draft on Sunday morning, and senior writer Jim Callis projected the Braves to take Chandler, while MLB.com writer Jonathan Mayo has Chandler going to the St. Louis Cardinal at No. 18.
The slot values of those picks would mean a signing bonus between $3.6 million and $4.9 million.
Chandler won’t be North Oconee’s only potential draft pick. Vanderbilt junior right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker was high school teammates with Chandler, who was a freshman shortstop when the two played together. Rocker is projected to go as high as second to the Texas Rangers.
Even if he hasn’t said whether he’ll stay in school or begin professional baseball, Chandler has at least put some thought into what his climb to the majors should look like. He’s not picky on what team chooses him, but rather more concerned with the farm system of the organization.
“I don’t want to get thrown into a situation where it’s going to be tough for me to try to get to the ultimate goal, which is the show,” he told Prospects Live in March. “Really just an organization that can keep my arm and my body healthy for however many games I need to play in the minor leagues.”
What Dabo Swinney, Monte Lee said
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney had high praise of Taylor when he signed with the Tigers back in December. Swinney said Taylor has a chance to be a promising receiver despite playing quarterback in high school at Ben Lippen and Dutch Fork.
“We expect him to move to wideout, and I really do think that he’s got a chance to be elite as a receiver, really special,” Swinney said. “But, it might be three years from now, and he’s been a great wideout for a couple years, but he will always have the foundation of quarterback. Because we’re going to take him this first year and we’re going to really teach him as a quarterback, and then the plan is to move him. But again, he’ll always have that foundation in play.”
During Monte Lee’s final news conference of the season on June 21, the Clemson baseball coach said he is “actively communicating” with both Chandler and Taylor and their families. He added he was going to speak with one of the two later that day, though he didn’t specify which, and would be meeting with both that week.
Lee acknowledged that whatever Taylor and Chandler do will be a family decision, no doubt a tough one, but wanted to make sure he properly communicated the “benefits of the Clemson experience.”
“I don’t know if you can have a better experience than going to school at a school like Clemson, playing in the best football program in the country with Clemson football,” he said, “and getting a chance to do both is a very unique situation where you can play football and baseball at Clemson. I don’t know if there is a price tag on that type of experience, so that’s our biggest message to them.”
Will they or won’t they sign?
All draftees have until Aug. 1 to sign with the parent club that drafts them.
While publicly neither has tipped his hand on what decision he’ll make, The State was told that both are expected to sign professional contracts and bypass their college careers.
According to CBS Sports, Carter Stewart was the last first-round pick not to sign when the Toronto Blue Jays took him eighth overall in 2018. Stewart went on to sign with the Japan’s Fukuoka Softbank Hawks .
If they both follow through and do just that, that’ll have a more immediate impact on the football team’s depth at the quarterback position. Projected starter DJ Uiagalelei would be the only healthy scholarship QB heading into the 2021 season.
How to watch MLB Draft
The 2021 first-year player draft is Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Round 1 is Sunday (7 pm, ESPN and MLB Network); Rounds 2-10 are Monday (1 pm, MLB Network); Rounds 11-20 are Tuesday (noon, MLB Network).
This story was originally published July 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
