How a former Clemson two-sport athlete is making strides in the minor leagues
Will Taylor has bigger dreams than playing for the Greensboro Grasshoppers.
At the same time, this is a pretty cool stop on his pro baseball journey.
Taylor, a former Dutch Fork High School star and two-sport athlete at Clemson, had been working dutifully to move up in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor league system ever since he was picked No. 145 overall in the fifth round of last year’s MLB Draft.
Earlier this month, he got his first call-up — and it landed him in familiar territory.
Taylor was promoted from the Pirates’ Single A affiliate to their High A affiliate on June 10 after a red-hot stretch batting for the Bradenton (Florida) Marauders.
Now the Columbia product plays his home games in Greensboro, North Carolina, three hours north of his hometown. In a stroke of luck, his second-ever road series with Greensboro was against the Greenville Drive ... an hour from Clemson.
Oh, and he’s one step closer to his childhood dream of making the big leagues.
“It’s a really exciting time,” Taylor told The State.
Looking back on Will Taylor’s Clemson career
In a June 19 interview from Fluor Field, Taylor said dozens of family members, friends and former Clemson baseball and football teammates were planning to come by for games during Greensboro’s six-game series at Greenville from June 17-22.
That’s not surprising, since Taylor quickly developed into a fan favorite during his three years at Clemson and hit some fun milestones as a dual-sport athlete.
Taylor, a state champion quarterback at Dutch Fork, started his Clemson football career as a quarterback in 2021 before making a planned transition to wide receiver in 2022. That year, he became the first Clemson athlete to win ACC championships in multiple sports in a single academic year since 1991-92 and the first to pull it off in football and baseball since Rusty Charpia in 1988-89.
He decided to give up football and focus on baseball full-time in summer 2023. Taylor was part of Clemson’s first super regional team in 14 years during the 2024 season and finished his baseball career as a .313 hitter in 107 games (105 starts).
Taylor, who could’ve been a first-round draft pick had he left for MLB straight out of high school, said he had no regrets about taking the college route.
“It was a great opportunity for me to come in and build relationships and memories that’ll last a lifetime,” Taylor said. “I knew that I had to prove myself again, and I felt I did that and got a chance to go play for the Pirates now.”
The MLB Draft happens in the middle of the season, so rookies don’t get fully integrated into their team’s schedules until the following February. Taylor, a 2024 Pirates draft pick, took part in his first spring training in February and March before being assigned to the Marauders, Pittsburgh’s Low A team.
Taylor, an outfielder, was injured three games into the season and missed about a month’s worth of games. When he came back on May 4, he was on fire.
He hit .433 for Marauders during one seven-game hitting streak. In an overlapping 12-game on-base streak, he hit .380 with four home runs, six doubles and 15 RBIs.
The cherry on top was his seven-RBI game on June 8 that made the rounds on social media. In that win, Taylor hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning and a grand slam in the sixth while also recording a double, a walk and three runs scored.
After that win, Bradenton’s manager went into the clubhouse and told Taylor and Konnor Griffin — the Pirates’ No. 2 overall prospect in their farm system — they were moving up to Greensboro, Pittsburgh’s High A affiliate.
Taylor was playing for the Grasshoppers in a game in Rome, Georgia two days later.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Taylor said. “I’m just lucky to stay healthy and get to go out and showcase my skills every day. It’s something that I expected to do, so it’s been fun. Just gotta keep it rolling, and we’ll see where it goes in the future.”
Will Taylor embracing ‘the process’
Taylor, 21, has been playing left and center field for Greensboro. He’s hit 11 of 47 (.234) with three extra-base hits and a .345 on-base percentage through 12 games.
That’s a noticeable drop-off from his Bradenton stats, though it’s not uncommon for a baseball prospect to experience a slow start when they move up a level.
Still, there have been some highlights. Taylor hit his first home run at the High A level on June 13 and has not committed a single fielding error in 2025.
And his first full season in the minors has been a welcome adjustment. Taylor played three to four games a week at Clemson. Now he plays six days in a row Tuesday through Sunday, rests on Monday and does it all over again, every single week.
“All day every day, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, it’s baseball,” he said, describing his schedule as “a grind, but fun.”
Clemson sports are still a big part of Taylor’s life. He followed the football and baseball teams closely during his first year away and even traveled to Austin to watch Clemson play Texas in the first round of the 2024 College Football Playoff.
“No doubt they’ll be back in it this year,” said Taylor, who was on the receiving end of Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik’s first career touchdown pass in 2022.
A lot of Tigers fans still wonder what sort of player Taylor could’ve been had he stuck to football. At 5-foot-10 and twitchy, he was good enough to start at punt returner as a true freshman in Clemson’s 2021 season opener against Georgia before various injuries limited his impact (he played 44 total offensive snaps in two years).
Taylor doesn’t wonder, though. He knew growing up he wanted to be an MLB player and said he’s “fully focused” on developing and improving within the Pirates organization, which, coincidentally, features another one-time Clemson football signee as its top prospect (RHP Bubba Chandler, who never made it to campus).
Taylor is not currently ranked among Pittsburgh’s top 30 farm system prospects, per mlb.com, but he’s embracing what he calls “the process” as a minor-leaguer. As in: a lot of games, a lot of ups and downs and a lot of patience.
While NFL rookies are playing, if not starting, in Week 1 of a season, Taylor is working on more of a multi-year timeline that would also involve stints in Double A Altoona (Pa.) and Triple A Indianapolis before he’d have a shot at the big leagues with Pittsburgh.
“Even a top prospect in baseball has a long way to go,” Taylor said. “It’s kind of crazy how that works, but it’s just adapting to the whole system and being ready to go whenever your name is called. I’ll be ready whenever I get the chance.”
This story was originally published June 23, 2025 at 7:00 AM with the headline "How a former Clemson two-sport athlete is making strides in the minor leagues."
