Taylor Gushue

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Taylor Stone Gushue

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Biographical Information[edit]

Taylor Gushue played for the USA national team before making his major league debut in 2021.

Gushue was All-State three years in a row in high school and hit .472 for his high school career with a school-record 30 homers. He also was a swimmer. [1] He hit .206 as a college freshman at age 18, but Florida made the 2012 College World Series. He remained the starting backstop as a sophomore and improved his hitting to .269/.349/.417. As a junior, he was better yet at .316/.389/.467 with 49 RBI in 63 games and was named All-Southeastern Conference. [2]

The Pittsburgh Pirates took him in the 4th round of the 2014 amateur draft, one round after Jordan Luplow. He hit .241/.336/.402 for the Jamestown Jammers that summer, tying for 9th in the New York-Penn League with 27 walks. In '15, he slumped to .231/.288/.342 for the West Virginia Power and had nearly as many passed balls (24) as walks (25). He led the South Atlantic League in passed balls. [3] He cut the passed balls to 14 with the 2016 Bradenton Marauders but offense remained poor (.226/.282/.357). Pittsburgh then dealt him with cash to the Washington Nationals for Chris Bostick.

In 2017, he was mostly with the Potomac Nationals (.241/.327/.437, 18 HR, 67 RBI in 91 G) and also was 1 for 12 with a walk for the Harrisburg Senators. He tied Matt Rose for 2nd in the Carolina League in dingers (6 behind Ademar Rifaela) and he was 4th in RBI. In the Nats chain, he tied Clint Robinson for 4th in home runs and was 7th in RBI, between Ian Sagdal and Jose Marmolejos). He led Carolina League catchers in fielding percentage (.991) and was named the All-Star backstop. [4] He backed up Sean Murphy with the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League, hitting .143/.176/.265.

Gushue took a step back in 2018 with the Harrisburg Senators (.212/.293/.363, 10 HR, 44 RBI in 97 G) and Syracuse Chiefs (1 for 4). His .996 fielding percentage led Eastern League backstops. [5] He wintered with the Gigantes del Cibao, hitting .203/.250/.313 as the third-stringer behind Carlos Paulino and Webster Rivas. In '19, he hit .312/.358/.517 for the Fresno Grizzlies while splitting catching with Raudy Read to have a fine rebound year. He was not named the Pacific Coast League's All-Star catcher, which went to David Freitas.

He got the nod for Team USA for the 2019 Premier 12 but saw little action behind hot-hitting veteran Erik Kratz and prospect Daulton Varsho. He replaced Kratz late in a 9-0 win over the Dutch national team and grounded out against Jim Ploeger in his lone at-bat. In his only other action, he started against champion Japan and went 0 for 4 in a 4-3 US win. The US finished 4th. [6]

Gushue did not play in 2020 as the minor league season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A free agent, he was signed by the Chicago Cubs for 2021. He was at .272/.328/.440 with 27 RBI in 36 games for the Iowa Cubs when he was called up to replace the injured Jose Lobaton. He debuted in a 15-7 loss to the Brewers, entering at 1B, replacing Patrick Wisdom in a double switch. He struck out against Miguel Sánchez in his first at-bat and later fanned against Trevor Richards and Jake Cousins. He finished the day at catcher.

Sources[edit]

  1. ↑ University of Florida bio
  2. ↑ ibid.
  3. ↑ 2016 Baseball Almanac, pg. 385
  4. ↑ 2018 Baseball Almanac, pg. 381
  5. ↑ 2019 Baseball Almanac, pg. 373
  6. ↑ 2019 Premier 12

Related Sites[edit]

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