MLB · SS · Tampa Bay Rays
Taylor Walls
B/T S/R · 5' 9" · 185 lb · born Cordele, GA, USA · age 30 · draft 2017 rd 3 · played SS 113 · MLB debut 2021-05-22
Last 14 days (through 2026-09-02): 11 G · .206 AVG · 0 HR · 3 RBI · .517 OPS
402 plate appearances scored this season His season card →
The Line of the Day
2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI — Tue, Aug 11 · night game vs. Athletics The scorecard →
Scout’s note
Taylor Walls is a 30-year-old switch-hitting shortstop from Cordele, Georgia, with 84 steals and a .200 career average across 583 games. The last 14 days — .263 with a .738 OPS and 2 homers — are the best stretch he has put up in a season where his bat has finally cooperated.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
Where he stands
throughAgainst the 382 qualified major-league hitters — 100+ balls in play this season, the same field the boards are chosen out of. Right is better on every row.
- EV95100.32
- Deserved (xVal)0.2772
- Got (aVal)0.30010
- Luck gap (park-adjusted)flipped0.02615
today · 30 days ago, against the 341 men who qualified then · the tick is the midpoint · the number at the right is the percentile, the number beside it the measurement itself.
What he’s paid
Not statedA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $2.45M
- Tax hit
- $2.45M
- Service time
- 4 yr 92 d
- Options left
- 2 / 3
The deal 1 year $2.5M (2026), club option for 2027
On the sheet: 1 y/$2.45M (26)+27 cl opt · agent Vayner Spts
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | Option | Arb 3 | Free agent |
| Tax hit | Option | — | — |
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Tampa Bay Rays.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $2.45M
- Guaranteed
- $1.40M
- Term
- 1 yr
- His class
- Extension
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | $2.5M | $3.1M |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
The two sources disagree
MLB Spreadsheets has this deal at 1 yr, $1,400,000 (); Cot’s has it at 1 yr, $2,450,000 (). They are $1,050,000 apart on the same number of years.
We do not adjudicate. Both readings are cited and dated, and this is 19 of the 848 deals we could compare — the other 829 agree to the dollar.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Taylor Walls
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Taylor Walls cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
Umpire favor
+0.5 net runs over 50 graded games — the zone was kind to the umpire on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →