When Port Coquitlam's Curtis Taylor hangs up his baseball cleats, he may consider a career in map making.
The 27-year-old right-handed pitcher has travelled pretty much everywhere across North America since he was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fourth round of the 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft.
Taylor's latest stop is Wichita, Kansas, where the former UBC star was assigned by the Minnesota Twins to play for the Wind Surge in the AA Texas League.
Taylor signed a minor league contract with the Twins on May 4, after he'd been released by the Iowa Cubs, a AAA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs where he landed after declaring free agency last November.
So far this season, Taylor has pitched 5.2 innings and allowed nine earned runs on 10 hits; three of those hits were home runs.
Since he signed his first contract with the Diamondbacks on June 13, 2016. Taylor has been a part of six Major League organizations — including the Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals, the Cubs and the Twins — but he's yet to play a big league game.
Instead, Taylor's toured their minor league affiliates like the Charlotte Stone Crabs, Montgomery Biscuits, New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Buffalo Bisons, Rochester Red Wings and Wilmington Blue Rocks.
His journey through baseball's hinterlands has been beset by injuries to his shoulder and elbow along with lengthy rehabilitation stints.
Last March at the World Baseball Classic, Taylor pitched two scoreless innings and allowed just one hit in Canada's 5-0 win over Colombia, but the team failed to advance beyond pool play.
Taylor's passion for baseball was ignited by watching the World Series with his father on a television set up in the garage of the family’s Port Coquitlam home.
His dad wanted to experience the post-season excitement in the same chilled air as his beloved New York Yankees.
