Red Sox prospect Taylor overcame cancer as a kid, transformed into a 'super athlete'

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- An Arizona Fall League coach knew Nelly Taylor's background … or part of it anyway. He knew the Florida native -- a plus runner and impressive defender in center field -- didn't play football growing up in Clearwater. There was a good reason for that.

"I said that's funny that you ask because I could never play contact sports," Taylor said. "I couldn't play contact sports because I have one kidney and I had a tumor that had to be removed."

Taylor, now the No. 17 prospect in the Red Sox system, was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor -- a rare kidney cancer that mainly affects children -- in his left kidney at only 5 years old. He had immediate surgery and years of recovery, all while his parents -- Nelson Taylor Sr. and Kalisha Cobbs -- did their best to keep their young son healthy and hopeful.

"They were keeping in my mind like, 'You're strong. You're going through this because you are strong, and you're chosen,'" Taylor said. "For the most part, I didn't know what was going on. I just knew there were a lot of doctors' appointments and a lot of prayer, for sure. That's something that has stayed with me throughout my life and career."

Taylor, now 22, has been fully recovered for 15 years in his rough estimation. But what seemed like a limitation in his early sporting career may have led him down a path that could take him to Fenway Park, if he can round out what still remains a raw set of tools.

Without the gridiron as an option, Taylor took to baseball and track growing up in the Tampa Bay area, focusing on 100-meter and 200-meter dashes along with long jump as a Junior Olympics participant. By the sixth grade, he'd been persuaded by a physical education teacher, who’d seen him homer in Little League, to try basketball too. Without any background in shooting the ball, he focused on defense and getting as many layups as he could.

Flash forward to near the end of his time at Clearwater High School, and Taylor had offers to stay local and play hoops at the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa. Instead, he stuck with his first love.

"I knew baseball would be my way out, would be my ticket," Taylor said. "I look back at it and I'm like, if I got to play at the highest level, which is the NBA, I don't know if I could guard LeBron [James]. But I know for sure I could play baseball with the best of them."

The left-handed-hitting outfielder headed to Polk State Junior College in Winter Haven, Fla., in order to prioritize the playing time he'd need to attract attention from Division I programs or pro organizations. He didn’t exactly bust out of the gate with a .236 average and .309 slugging percentage over 234 plate appearances as a freshman in 2022, but a solid turn in the Florida Collegiate Summer League (along with a recommendation from Polk State coach Al Corbeil) led to a seven-game stint in the Cape Cod League with Bourne.

Underlining he just needed exposure to more top-level arms, Taylor came out firing as a sophomore with a .353/.467/.620 line, six homers and 31 steals. He was named Suncoast Conference Defensive Player of the Year and took home a Rawlings Gold Glove Award for the JuCo ranks. Slated to head to Florida State, the outfielder went instead to the Red Sox in the 11th round of the 2023 Draft, eventually signing for $300,000, double the amount players could sign for after the 10th round without dipping into a club’s bonus pool.

Through two years of pro ball, Taylor remains an enticing but flawed prospect.

He was circled by many in the Red Sox organization as a potential breakout talent for 2025 with improvements in his bat speed the main driver of the enthusiasm. He gets that going with a sizable leg kick (until two strikes when he tamps it down) that plays into the rest of his game.

"Have you seen him play center field? Super athlete," said Glendale hitting coach Chris Hess, who worked with Double-A Portland during the regular season. "He's that guy that's going to go get it in center field. It's the same mentality in the box. He likes to be an athlete. He likes to be moving, so it kind of works well for him."

The Red Sox identified swing decisions and bat-to-ball skills – two of their core hitting principles – as major needs for growth in Taylor’s profile ahead of his AFL assignment, and Taylor has taken to skinny bat (hitting the ball with smaller equipment) and colored ball (focusing on certain pitches) drills to address both here in the desert.

"I think that's going to come with maturity," Hess said. "I think he's still learning how to control the zone and when to take his shots and when to kind of pull it back. … When he connects right now, it's loud, and it's hard. Just getting him to do that would be the goal."

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Others are taking notice, including five-year Major Leaguer and Salt River manager Eric Patterson.

"I've been working with EP a little bit more here lately," Taylor said. "One thing he's been telling me is about my hands. He's telling me to trust them. 'You have really quick ass hands and they're really good, so you have to trust your abilities and learn how to use them properly because they can hurt you if you're not using them right."

It's slowly coming together for Taylor in the desert. He notched his first multihit effort of the Fall League on Sunday at Glendale, reaching three times on two singles and a walk, and in a sign of how unlucky he'd been before then, five of his six hard-hit balls (i.e. those with exit velocities above 95 mph) in the Fall League season have resulted in outs.

He's found the sport with the right type of contact for him.

"The more baseball I play," Taylor said, "the better, I believe, I'm going to get.'