Chattanooga Lookouts left fielder Taylor Trammell runs toward second base during the first inning of Thursday night’s season opener against the Montgomery Biscuits at AT&T Field.Thursday night not only marked the start of the 20th season for the Chattanooga Lookouts at AT&T Field, it was the latest justification for left fielder Taylor Trammell, who picked a career in baseball over football in 2016.
Playing in the first Double-A game of his career, the 21-year-old from the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw drew three walks and scored a run during Chattanooga’s 6-3 loss to the Montgomery Biscuits at AT&T Field. An announced crowd of 5,861 braved a steady wind and sporadic rain.
“I’m really excited about watching Taylor play on an everyday basis,” Lookouts manager Pat Kelly said. “I’ve heard so much about him and got to see him a little bit this spring. He’s just a tremendous person in addition to being a tremendous talent baseball-wise.
“He played a lot of football and is still learning some of the nuances of baseball, but I am very excited about seeing him for 140 games.”
The Cincinnati Reds signed Trammell in June 2016 for $3.2 million, allowing the 6-foot-2, 215-pounder the opportunity to bypass a college career at Georgia Tech. He had committed to play baseball for the Yellow Jackets but also planned to play football after rushing for 2,479 yards and 9.9 yards per carry as a Mount Paran Christian School senior, which led to him being named Georgia’s Class A player of the year.
Trammell maintains very fond memories of football, though he isn’t sure he would have been a running back in the triple-option attack of former Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson.
“I think I might have played safety,” a smiling Trammell said. “I’ll be honest, they got hit a lot on that triple-option. I think I would have been better on defense, trying to pick off Trevor Lawrence or something like that. That would have been fun.”
After getting drafted, Trammell went to rookie ball in Billings, Montana, where he hit .303 in 61 games and racked up 24 stolen bases. He spent the entire 2017 season with the Dayton (Ohio) Dragons in the Single-A Midwest League, hitting .281 in 129 games and finishing second in the league with 77 RBIs and 41 steals.
Trammell spent all of last year with Daytona in the high Single-A Florida State League and hit .277 in 110 games. He was ranked by Baseball America among the FSL’s top-five prospects and entered this season as MLB.com’s No. 16 prospect throughout the minors.
His accomplishments have resulted in lofty expectations, though he chooses not to view it that way.
“I don’t really think too much about it or put too much pressure on myself,” Trammell said. “Of course I want to compete and be the best I can be, but I know the work that I put in and that everything will fall into place.
“I want to be in Cincinnati in the future. Whether that’s this year or next year or the year after, it doesn’t matter, just as long as I’m there.”
The Lookouts pulled into a 1-1 tie during the fourth inning Thursday, when a Courtney Hawkins drive to center field scored Gavin LaValley. Chattanooga took a 2-1 lead later in the fourth when TJ Friedl’s triple to right scored Brantley Bell, but the Biscuits used a two-run home run and a two-run throwing error in a five-run sixth to pull away.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.