Taylor Gushue


Taylor Stone Gushue is an American professional baseball catcher in the Washington Nationals organization.

Career

Amateur career

A native of Boca Raton, Florida, Gushue attended the University of Florida, and in 2013, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Pittsburgh Pirates

A fourth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, Gushue signed for a $388,800 signing bonus. Though drafted as a catcher, Gushue had also played first base at Florida. After signing, he was assigned to the Jamestown Jammers where he batted.241/.336/.402 with five home runs and 29 RBIs.
In 2015, he played with the West Virginia Power, batting.231/.288/.342 with five home runs and 47 RBIs in 99 games.
In 2016, he played with the Bradenton Marauders, where batted.226/.282/.357 with eight home runs and 38 RBIs.

Washington Nationals

On September 26, 2016, he was traded to the Washington Nationals for infielder Chris Bostick.
While not considered a remarkable hitter in the Pirates organization, Gushue demonstrated an immediate power surge in the Nationals organization, where he started 2017 with the Potomac Nationals. He was named a Carolina League All-Star, alongside teammates Víctor Robles and Kelvin Gutierrez. Midseason prospect rankings produced by MLB Pipeline saw Gushue vault into the Nationals' top 30 prospects, ranking as their third-best catching prospect behind Raudy Read and Pedro Severino and coming in at 25th overall among Washington prospects. Gushue led the Potomac Nationals in home runs with 18 on the season along with slashing.241/.327/.437 with 67 RBIs. He finished the season with the Harrisburg Senators, playing four games with them. He went on to play for 13 games for the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League after the season.
Gushue was invited to participate in 2018 and 2019 spring training with the Nationals. In 2018, playing for two minor league teams, he batted.213/.292/.364 with 10 home runs and 44 RBIs. In 2019, playing for Fresno he batted.312/.358/.517 with 11 home runs and 39 RBIs. After the season, on October 10, he was selected for the United States national baseball team in the 2019 WBSC Premier 12 tournament in November 2019.