Rays sign first-round pick Brayden Taylor

The Tampa Bay Rays have signed shortstop Brayden Taylor, the No. 19 overall selection in the 2023 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

Taylor, 21, hit .308/.430/.631 with 15 doubles, 23 HR, 70 RBI, 77 runs and 14 steals in 58 games during his junior season at Texas Christian University, earning First Team All-Big 12 and Third Team Baseball America All-American honors.

His 23 home runs and 77 runs scored both tied single-season program records, while his 48 career homers broke Royce Huffman’s program record of 44 HR set in 1999.

Taylor was named the 2023 Big 12 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after going 8-for-16 (.500) with four doubles and three home runs, leading the Horned Frogs to their fourth Big 12 Tournament Championship in program history and their first College World Series appearance since 2017. He was ranked as the No. 14 player in this year’s draft by MLB.com_,_ No 15. by Baseball America and No. 24 by FanGraphs.

Taylor became the fifth shortstop selected by the Rays in the first round, following Carson Williams (No. 28) in 2021, Greg Jones (No. 22) in 2019, Tim Beckham (No. 1) in 2008 and B.J. Upton (No. 2) in 2002.

Taylor was one of 21 selections made by the Rays in the 2023 First-Year Player Draft and the 18th to sign, joining SS Adrian Santana (CB-A) , OF Colton Ledbetter (Rd. 2), 1B Tre' Morgan (Rd. 3), SS Hunter Haas (Rd. 4), RHP Trevor Harrison (Rd. 5), RHP T.J. Nichols (Rd. 6), RHP Owen Wild (Rd. 7), LHP Dalton Fowler (Rd. 9), RHP Adam Boucher (Rd. 10), RHP Garrett Edwards (Rd. 11), RHP Chandler Murphy (Rd. 12), C Bryan Broecker (Rd. 13), RHP T.J. Fondtain (Rd. 14), RHP Will Stevens (Rd. 15), 1B Wooyeoul Shin (Rd. 16), RHP Hayden Snelsire (Rd. 17) and LHP Jérémy Pilon (Rd. 18).

The signing deadline this year is July 25 at 5:00 p.m. ET.