Taylor was ready to come back to Williamsport to finish out the MLB Draft League season. He and his advisor had placed a high bar on what it would take to get him to sign with an MLB team should he be drafted earlier this week. When he didn’t hear his name called on the first two days of the draft, Taylor prepared to finish his summer in Williamsport.

But that’s perfectly OK for the 19-year-old right-handed pitcher. He knew going into the draft process the worst-case scenario was he’d go to UC Irvine this fall, where he is committed to play baseball, and prepare for the spring 2022 season. And that’s exactly what the California native is doing.

“I wasn’t expecting to get drafted. I’m only 19 and I’ve only been pitching a year and a half,” Taylor said prior to the Williamsport Crosscutters’ game against Frederick on Thursday. “The whole point of coming out here was to experience this and have some really good guys for competition. So it’s wasn’t necessarily a frustrating weekend.”

Taylor is coming off a season at Cypress College in California where he caught the attention of scouts with his raw stuff even if his numbers didn’t catch their eye. He came to the MLB Draft League in hopes of giving scouts another look at what he’s working with. And what he showed was a fastball which sat in the 93-95 mph range with a slider that showed depth and good horizontal break.

DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette The Williamsport Crosscutters’ Troy Taylor, center, was surprised that he got drafted this year.

Showing off that raw stuff and facing the level of competition he has was more important to Taylor than necessarily getting drafted. He, his advisor, and his coaches at UC Irvine decided if he wasn’t taken in the Top 5 rounds of the draft, he would enroll at UC Irvine this fall and work toward next year’s draft when he’s be a draft-eligible 20-year old.

“When I talked to my advisor, we set the bar really, really high this year to get drafted,” Taylor said. “If I did get drafted high enough, I would have gone. I was lucky enough to hear my name called, but it just wasn’t the right opportunity. So I came back here and I’ll go out to Irvine and see what happens then.”

The Seattle Mariners selected Taylor with the 12th pick of the 20th round and still hold his rights. Taylor said there’s still a chance the Mariners could come back with a signing bonus offer before the Aug. 1 signing deadline which could make him change his mind and sign his first pro contract. But for now, he’s focusing on getting in more innings with the Crosscutters and wrapping up the season before heading to Irvine to become an Anteater.

“We’ll see what happens in these next few starts and go from there,” Taylor said. “I still want to do the same thing I wanted to do when I got here. I’d like to go out and throw 15-plus more innings and set myself up for either going with Seattle or going back to school.”

Taylor was one of eight Williamsport Crosscutters who were selected in this week’s MLB Draft, which was the most of any team in the Draft League. It was an exciting time to watch his teammates take that step in their careers. Taylor said he’s better off for having gone through the process so he’s better prepared for us when he hopefully gets the opportunity again next year.

DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Cutters pitcher Troy Taylor throws to a teammate as he and other pitchers work on their delivery throwing to second base at Bowman Field.

“It was great because I’ve never been through that before,” Taylor said. “I was ecstatic for those guys because all of them have worked extremely hard to get to this point.”

Taylor begins the second half of the MLB Draft League season as probably the best pitcher on a totally revamped Cutters pitching staff. He is 3-1 with a 3.33 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting just .198 against him in his six appearances.

And more than anything, Taylor is perfectly content to come back to Williamsport to get some more experience heading into his first Division I college season. He no longer has to worry about performing for scouts. He no longer has to worry about his draft fate. He can focus on putting in the work he needs to be prepared for whatever his next step is.

“I just want to come out here and get better,” Taylor said. “The coaching staff is awesome and has helped a lot. I feel like the Draft League has been really good for me.”