Mom, my side hurts.

After Nelly Taylor Jr. pulled himself off the lawn, in more pain than he’d ever experienced in his 5-year old life, he gathered the strength to go inside and tell his mother, Kalisha Cobbs.

Mom, my side hurts. He’d been playing football with his older cousins, which they did frequently when together.

A tackle took his wind. Get up, Taylor’s cousins implored. Get up. He couldn’t, not for a few minutes. It hurt so much.

Rest, she said, and if it still hurts in the morning, your father (Nelly Taylor Sr.) will take you to the doctor. When the pain didn’t subside the next morning, that visit to the doctor revealed the life-changing diagnosis. Taylor had a tumor on his left kidney.

“She knew it wasn’t normal for me to ever complain about pain. I was a tough little kid,” Taylor said. “Nobody expected it, you know?”

Taylor, 23, tells this story while standing in the outfield at Hadlock Field. Drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 11th round in 2023 out of Polk State College in Winter Haven, Florida, Taylor was promoted to the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs to start the season. One of the best defensive players in Boston’s minor league system, Taylor is comfortable in the outfield.

Taylor was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor, a rare but highly treatable form of kidney cancer that’s often found in children. Taylor’s left kidney was removed, and he underwent chemotherapy. He lost his hair. Now he jokes with teammates who shave their heads, you can’t rock a bald head like me.

He carried a prayer blanket to every doctor’s appointment, every treatment, as a source of comfort. It had logos of various baseball teams on it. Maybe it was foreshadowing.

Taylor doesn’t remember ever being told he was cancer free. He does remember starting to feel better, feeling stronger and healthier. He remembers his hair starting to grow back. He remembers going back to school for second grade after being homeschooled during his treatment.

“I started feeling more like myself,” he said.

For an energetic, athletic kid, that meant getting back into sports. Football, all contact sports, were out of the question. There was baseball, and basketball, which Taylor developed a passion for in high school. Colleges offered scholarships in both, but Taylor saw baseball as the path with the greatest upside.

“I knew I could play against the highest level of baseball players rather the highest level of basketball players,” he said.

In 2024, Taylor was named the Defensive Player of the Year in the Red Sox minor league system. He can play all three outfield spots, said Portland manager Chad Epperson, but he’ll focus on right field and center. MLB Pipeline ranks Taylor as the No. 23 prospect in Boston’s system. Last week against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Taylor made the first of what should be many highlight reel catches with the Sea Dogs, diving forward to snag a sinking line drive.

Hitting is still a work in progress. Taylor is off to a slow start, with just one hit in his first 27 at-bats. Considering what he’s gone through, a slump isn’t going to stop him.

At the Sea Dogs annual Fan Fest on April 1, Taylor spoke about how his parents were critical pieces of his fight against cancer, always reminding him how strong he was. God picks his toughest battles for his toughest soldiers, they told him. He talked about how sports provided him with so many other adult role models who helped him on this journey.

When you’re a 5-year old who doesn’t understand what’s happening, only that it’s serious, that love can make the difference. That can push away the fear. Be the role model for your children, he said. It can make the difference.

“It meant a lot to me … When they see the child they brought into this world and want the best for, to grow up and be strong, and have somebody to look up to. It’s themselves, you know? It’s the parents they look up to,” Taylor said. “Every sport I played, there’s moms, dads who took me in as a son. Even coaches. That meant so much. Not everybody gets that.”

Taylor pays it forward the best way he knows how, by playing hard.