Tampa Bay Rays Top 56 Prospects

Williams was a two-way high school player who was talented enough to be considered a prospect as both a shortstop and a pitcher. The Rays gave him a $2.3 million bonus to keep him from heading to Cal and have developed him solely as a hitter. During the last three years, Williams has become one of the better prospects in all of baseball, averaging 20 annual homers as a young-for-the-level player who also plays Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop.

In 2024, Williams slashed .256/.352/.469 with 20 bombs and 33 steals in 44 attempts at Double-A Montgomery. That’s not to say that Williams is a lock to hit. He’s struck out more than 30% of the time so far in pro ball, and he has severe issues contacting breaking balls. The 65-68% contact rates he’s posted the last couple of years are scraping the bottom of the big league barrel at shortstop. The players in that area who tend to succeed (a select few: Elly De La Cruz, Oneil Cruz, Ezequiel Tovar) do so because they have enormous tools, and thankfully so does Williams, who is still a fairly skinny 21-year-old and already generating above-average big league power with the flick of his wrists. That and his premium defensive ability are the two attributes that support Williams’ entire profile.

Williams is an unbelievable athlete and flashy shortstop defender who is as creative as he is talented. His range, body control, and plus-plus throwing arm make many tough plays look routine, and make some seemingly impossible plays possible. This defensive ability gives Williams a very high floor. The bummer version of Williams looks something like Adalberto Mondesi, while the version who polishes his hit tool enough to be a consistent All-Star looks more like Willy Adames.

Curet has led the minors in strikeouts over the last two seasons, with 303 tickets punched in just 223 innings. He’s been walk-prone during that time, and his fastball has some round-down elements in its shape and plane, but Curet’s delivery is so relaxed and easy that we anticipate he’ll continue to polish that as he matures. He’s only 22, but for two consecutive years, he’s shown he can sustain mid-to-upper-90s velocity across a starter’s load of innings. In 2024, his first year on Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster, he worked 119 innings, ran a 2.95 ERA and 3.76 FIP, and was still reaching back for 97-98 mph fastballs in September with Double-A Montgomery.

Curet’s fastball generated plus miss in 2024 even though it has suboptimal shape. When he’s locating it to the arm-side part of the plate, it has exploding rise/run movement. Curet’s slider has plus potential thanks to its rare velocity. It’ll touch 90 mph and often acts more like a cutter than a true slider, starting above the zone and bending down into it when it’s at its best. Even though it isn’t truly switched on as a chase-inducing weapon right now, it has still been able to generate above-average miss. Something as simple as altering Curet’s position on the rubber might help it look more enticing to hitters.

The real late-season development for Curet was his changeup, which he used twice as often in Montgomery as he did in Bowling Green. As you can imagine from a guy who has below-average command and is just starting to use a new pitch, Curet’s feel for locating it was inconsistent, but a good number of his changeups have huge tailing action and downward finish. The ease of his delivery makes this pitch very promising; it generated a 60% miss and 45% chase rate in August and September even though Curet had basically only just begun working with it. Curet’s fastball, durability (this guy’s legs are like tree trunks), and proximity to the big leagues drive a long-term mid-rotation projection. He’s entering his second option year and should make his big league debut at some point in 2025.

A transfer from UAB to Georgia Tech, Simpson was one of the more fascinating 2022 draft prospects because he had elite speed and bat-to-ball performance in college, but he was also a bad second base defender with bottom-of-the-scale power. Though he is still not hitting for any power, Simpson has had resounding success in pro ball. Every last bit of his superlative contact ability has translated, and Simpson is now a career .326/.394/.375 hitter after having spent most of 2024 at Double-A Montgomery. Now Simpson is quite literally off and running in 2025 big league spring training, and looks like he has a chance to break camp with the big league roster.

Mid-minors defenses have been the Wile E. Coyote to Simpson’s Roadrunner. He is a flat out 80-grade runner who’ll clock 3.8 from home to first. When he’s legging out a hustle double or going first-to-third, it barely looks like Simpson is touching the ground. This guy has elite, game-changing speed. On top of that, Simpson has posted superlative rates of contact. His slappy approach has held up so far, and he’s in the Steven Kwan/Luis Arraez territory in terms of his in-zone and overall contact metrics. Simpson doesn’t have the Jedi-level feel for the barrel that those two have, but he tracks pitches very well, he’s short to the ball, and he moves the bat around the zone enough to make a ton of contact, even if it isn’t always squared up. Aside from the occasional double down the third base line or into the gap, Simpson produces almost no power; his lone pro homer is an inside-the-parker. There is some risk that Simpson ends up producing on offense like Myles Straw or Nick Madrigal, who both also made a ton of contact in the minors. His spray chart looks like a left-handed version of those guys, but the combination of that handedness edge and Simpson’s elite speed gives him a much more threatening offensive dynamic.

The other key (but still developing) aspect of Simpson’s profile is his defense. A bad second base defender as an amateur, Simpson has moved to center field in pro ball. His feel for the position isn’t great, and his reads and routes can take him in a couple of different directions even on routine plays. But when Simpson hits the afterburners to go get a ball in the gap, you can see how his speed gives him a shot to be a special defender out there. His range in incredible, and Simpson has just over 140 career games in center field under his belt. There’s a chance he develops into a plus center field defender while also being a premium contact hitter with elite speed. Simpson is a unicorn of sorts and should be a special, table-setting offensive player who also plays a premium position well. He’s arguably the favorite to lead the league in steals for the next five years or so, and provide rare production for a powerless hitter.

Hopkins is a converted outfielder who spent his first couple of collegiate seasons at the College of Charleston, where he didn’t pitch very much. It wasn’t until he transferred to Winthrop that he began to pitch regularly in a starter role, and he still managed to lead the Eagles in homers during his draft year even though Hopkins was becoming an “arrow up” prospect on the mound. A big-framed guy and exciting athlete, Hopkins’ stuff took a leap within his first year as a pro, and he quickly became Seattle’s best pitching prospect before he was traded to Tampa Bay as part of the Randy Arozarena deal and was promoted to High-A. Across the two orgs he had a strong first full season — 115 IP in 25 starts, 10.41 K/9, 4.15 BB/9, 3.05 ERA — especially for a guy who was still hitting part of the time the prior season.

Hopkins has a low-slot slinger’s delivery akin to Tanner Houck or Camilo Doval. He’s a broad-shouldered 6-foot-4, and has a low-slot, drop-and-drive style, with his arm stroke happening suddenly at the very end of his delivery. This wreaks havoc on hitters’ timing and creates exploding rise-and-tail life up around the hands of righties. He has been up to 99 and, in his first year of focusing on pitching, threw a decent number of strikes. Obviously, with an arm slot like Hopkins’, his slider spells trouble for righties. This pitch has variable movement in the 86-92 mph range. Some of them look like cutters, while others have more length and depth.

It used to be that pitchers with deliveries like this were rarely found in a rotation, but that’s not really true anymore, and it’s becoming less true all the time. If Hopkins can develop a changeup and/or a well-commanded cutter, anything to flesh out his repertoire, he has a great chance to be a mid-rotation starter. He checks basically every athletic box on the scout card, and there are all kinds of late bloomer traits here. Pitching full-time is still very new to Hopkins, and the Rays seemed to alter his style of attack after the trade, as he peppered the top of the zone more often. His groundball rate before the deal (59%) and after it (34%) help illustrate the effects of this. This is a very exciting pitching prospect whose floor feels like that of a nasty late-inning reliever. Hopkins has a mid-rotation ceiling if he sustains this velo and finds a third pitch.

Morgan was the Eric Hosmer of college baseball for his three years at LSU, playing slick first base defense while bringing a competitive edge and moxy to Baton Rouge. He didn’t produce anything close to the typical in-game power output of a big league first baseman, in part because his bat path caused him to drive the ball into the ground fairly often, à la Hosmer. In pro ball, Morgan’s swing and approach have changed pretty dramatically a couple of times already, and he has also begun using a bat with a weighted knob.

During the 2024 regular season, it looked like Morgan was more often taking max-effort swings and selling out for power. He reached Double-A and slugged .483 across three levels, but his middling raw strength and opposite-field tendency as a hitter (plus elevated chase rates relative to his career norms) suggested this was maybe not the best approach for him. In the Fall League, Morgan was more balanced, taking enormous hacks only in favorable counts. He was still stinging the ball in a way that indicates he’ll be a doubles machine, and he seemed less vulnerable to fastballs up and away than he did during the summer. We don’t have a way of truly knowing how Morgan will handle elevated big league fastballs until he faces them, but a more balanced, contact-oriented style of hitting is going to give him a much better chance of covering the top of the zone and being a more complete hitter.

What really tipped Morgan into the Top 100, though, is his defense. He does the splits at first base as easily as you might change the channel from the CBS NFL game to the FOX game during commercials. He is at least the best first base defender Eric has seen in person since young Cody Bellinger, and maybe the best he’s ever seen there, period. That said, Morgan looks bad in the outfield and shouldn’t play there. Morgan will produce like a second-division regular on offense, but he’ll make the whole infield better because of his ability to erase their mistakes on defense.

Isaac has some of the most exciting power in pro baseball. A formerly pudgy high school first baseman, Isaac completely reshaped his body, and in a 2023 season spent mostly at Low-A, he became one of the more exciting power-hitting prospects in the sport, as he slugged .521, posted elite peak exit velocities, and struck out at a very reasonable 21.2% clip as a 19-year-old. Isaac had some underlying swing-and-miss issues (a 68% contact rate, lower than all but a couple of big league first basemen), but the guys who succeed in spite of this (the Bryce Harper, Brent Rooker, Kyle Schwarber types) all do so with gargantuan power, which Isaac has.

Isaac broke camp with the High-A Bowling Green squad in 2024, and was running a 69% contact rate through May before he completely collapsed. By the end of the season, he had a sub-60% contact rate, which is not viable at the big league level. Isaac was getting absolutely worked by pitches in on his hands. His swing is just too long for him to get the bat to that location, and this issue will only get worse as Isaac faces upper-level pitchers who throw harder. There has to be intervention and adjustment here to get Isaac to shorten up, or he won’t hit enough to be a big leaguer. His raw power, however, is elite. This is a 21-year-old with 40-homer power who has already made one significant change (his conditioning) as a pro. If Isaac — who has other hitterish elements in his ability to make in-flight adjustments to breaking balls and power fastballs away from him to left field — can get back to being a nearly 70% contact hitter, he’s going to be a monster. Even if he can just get into the 65%-ish area, he’ll be able to have a Chris Carter-type career. This grade is more about valuing Isaac’s ceiling than it is a representation of his current skills. He’s Schrödinger’s Cleanup Hitter whose early-2025 mechanical look is very important to monitor.

Taylor had swing-and-miss issues exposed during his draft year even though he hit a career-best 23 homers and ended his tenure at TCU having slashed .315/.442/.595. In 108 PA after the draft, he struck out 31.5% of the time but still slugged .516 by virtue of how aggressive his swing’s uppercut path tends to be. Taylor had a very similar 2024, as he opened the season at High-A Bowling Green and ended it with six weeks at Montgomery. Combined, he slashed .250/.365/.493 and clubbed 20 homers, cutting his strikeouts at High-A (24.8%) before they spiked to a scary area (36.8%) after he was promoted.

Taylor is extremely lift- and pull-oriented. He averaged 24 degrees of launch last year; Daulton Varsho was the lone qualified big leaguer with a mark that high in 2024. His hips tend to bail toward first base as he swings, creating a hole on the outer third of the zone, while the manner in which Taylor’s swing is geared for lift results in a second hole at the top of the zone. Still, Taylor’s combination of lift and selectivity should allow him to hit for a decent amount of power even though he has slightly below-average raw power right now, and it’s plausible the baby-faced Taylor as more juice in the way.

The Rays have tried to move Taylor up the defensive spectrum, giving him a lot of middle infield reps rather than playing him exclusively at his native third base, and it just might work. His hands and actions are of shortstop quality, his arm accuracy is more on the fringe. He’s a 45-grade shortstop, plus third base defender, and should be plus at second base with time. The ceiling for Taylor is akin to a lefty-hitting Paul DeJong, where he’s getting to power and playing an okay shortstop. There may also be some leaner, strikeout-prone years betwixt and between more productive ones, but even in those, Taylor will still produce like a good-gloved utility guy.

Wiry and athletic with especially precocious command given his cold weather, upstate New York origins, Gill Hill compiled a sublime opening four months of his first full professional season (108.2 innings all spent at Low-A Charleston) before slowing down the stretch. Fluid enough to make his crossfire motion look smooth, GGH walked just over 6% of Carolina League hitters in 2024 and was running a 2.40 ERA at the 90-inning mark until he ran out of gas in his final five outings. The 20-year-old right-hander owns the inside half of the plate against righties by pairing a tailing sinker with a two-plane slider out of a low three-quarters slot, and he sells his changeup well enough to dream on it as a tool for suppressing the power lefty hitters started to exhibit against him last year, provided his command of it matures. Already sitting 92-95 mph with substantial projection left, GGH is a mid-rotation prospect whose arrow is pointing up.

When Gillen first burst onto the prospect scene, he was a skinny shortstop with a great looking lefty swing. He dealt with injuries of varying severity throughout high school, the most significant of which required labrum surgery. In addition to their toll on Gillen, the injuries made it difficult to evaluate him, as even when he was healthy, he sometimes looked rusty. Now he’s getting stronger, and looks more comfortable in the box the further away he gets from his injuries. He is one of the few players in last year’s draft class who could hit, hit for power, and also projects to play an up-the-middle position.

Gillen has quick and slick hitting hands. His swing looked long during his pre-draft summer, but he’s meaningfully stronger now and is getting back to the ball quicker. He rotates hard while keeping his head on the baseball and makes a ton of sweet spot contact. A scout source told Eric they thought Gillen had a chance to be a left-handed Marcus Semien — that’s what Gillen’s hitting hands are like. It’s also the path Gillen’s body and defensive fit could follow as he fills out. While Gillen’s lateral agility and arm strength probably aren’t a fit at shortstop (his high school position), his middle infield experience and speed give him a good shot to play second base or maybe try center field. We think the former is more likely. Especially if he continues to get stronger, his hit/power combo will profile in an everyday capacity at either spot.

One of the top handful of 2023 international amateur prospects, Guerrero signed for $3.7 million and had his pro debut season cut short by a torn labrum. Promoted to the Florida complex in 2024, he was having a good year despite strikeout rates around 25%, when shoulder issues cropped up again and he was shut down. He has now played just 35 pro games.

Guerrero has a powerful, picturesque swing that produces all-fields pop. It’s a tad long, but Guerrero easily has the strength to hit for power the other way even when he’s late into the hitting zone. This is a very physical 18-year-old — if he showed up for your favorite college’s spring football scrimmage, he’d be sent to work out with the defensive ends. He’s playing center field right now but probably isn’t a long-term fit there, as he’s running in the 4.3s already and will probably keep filling out as he matures. The early-career strikeout rates and some visual cues from Brailer’s swing (its length makes it tough for him to elevate consistently) create enough risk to have slid Guerrero down into the FV tier typically associated with corner platoon bats (he’s also playing a fair bit of right field). That feels like the middle of his potential outcomes, a power-over-hit corner profile that plays against righties in a big way. That doesn’t mean Guerrero lacks everyday upside — it’s plausible last year’s missed reps are the root cause of his current strikeout issues and that he’ll remedy them with time.

Rock is a very deceptive lefty with roughly average stuff and plus control. Though his pitches don’t look like they move a ton, Rock still generates average or better chase across his entire repertoire, which consists of a sinker, changeup, slider, and elevated four-seamer. Rock has a small forward’s build at a lanky 6-foot-6, and his delivery has an enormous glove raise, during which his shoulder blades nearly touch as Rock’s arm action swoops behind him. He looks like a prehistoric bird at the moment he’s most splayed out. As elaborate as this looks, Rock is still able to throw a ton of strikes. behind him as Rock’s delivery His wingspan and He throws both a two- and four-seam fastball; he utilizes the former down in the zone with its tailing action, while he’ll sneak the latter up above hitters’ barrels with the aid of the unique angle his release point creates. He sits 91-94 mph with both heaters and, with his frame as thin and long as it is, could easily add a tick more velocity as his body adds strength. The slider is a three-quarters breaking ball in the 83-86 mph range that has late tilt to it, but varying degrees of depth. His 85-87 mph changeup is in the same velo neighborhood as his slider and has fade and sinking action at its best. Rock consistently sells it with fastball arm speed. Rock has shown improvement in his overall strike-throwing ability, but his precision projects to be a tick below average. His arsenal is sufficient to carry a back-of-the-rotation role in the near future, and he has better long-term projection than most 23-year-olds because of his frame. He worked 140 innings in 2024 and is primed to compete for a spot at the back of the Rays rotation in 2025.

Baumeister came to Florida State with a lot of profile as a two-way high school prospect, but he ran an ERA over 5.00 in his two seasons there, though his FIP was 2.82 in 2023. Baumeister’s uncommon athleticism and vertical fastball ride made him an early-round draft prospect anyway. The Orioles made him the 63rd overall pick in 2023 and sent him to High-A when camp broke in 2024. Though he was walk-prone there, he was still missing a ton of bats, and the Rays took him as part of the Zach Eflin trade return. Baumeister’s pitch usage changed after the trade, and he threw fewer curveballs and more of his 83-87 mph cutter/slider during the final month of the season. The change coincided with better overall strike-throwing from Baumeister, who cut his walk rate from 14% to 4.8% after the deal.

Baumeister’s delivery is pretty crunchy and creates a sort of relief risk on its own. He strides open and falls way off toward the first base side, and there’s also some violence about the head and neck on release. His 92-95 mph four-seamer consistently rides above bats thanks to its carry through the zone. He doesn’t locate it precisely, but he has feel for elevating it in general, which is fine considering its life. His curveball is a 12-to-6 downer with significant depth that tunnels well with his elevated four-seamers out of the hand. There’s also a fading changeup in the mix that Baumeister throws with good arm speed; his best ones have enough action to miss bats. Unless Baumeister’s late-season strike-throwing improvement continues, this is a starter’s mix in a reliever’s mechanical and strike-throwing package. Baumeister is at least going to be a great multi-inning reliever and has a shot to be a good team’s fourth starter.

Kinney was drafted as a big-framed bat-to-ball prospect with reverse projection, a forecast he has made good on, as he has slimmed down and become more agile than when he turned pro. At the time of his selection, it was thought that Kinney would play some combination of third and first base at maturity, but he’s been successfully moved up the defensive spectrum and has become a viable (if unspectacular) second base defender, in addition to playing both corner infield positions. He enters 2025, his 40-man platform year, a career .280/.352/.432 hitter across parts of three minor league seasons, with a 2022 gap year in there due to a shoulder surgery.

Kinney’s bat path is in the hitting zone for a long time, allowing him to work the opposite field with doubles-quality contact, though it limits his ability to pull the baseball. He’s a great low-ball hitter with some vulnerability at the top of the strike zone, which perhaps will worsen as Kinney deals with upper-level foes and their velocity. He should still hit enough to play a multi-positional role, but probably not an everyday one. Kinney does a little bit of everything and his versatility will aid in his rosterability, but he doesn’t have a plus, game-changing tool, and so his impact is likely to be modest. With Tampa Bay’s crowded infield and 40-man situation, Kinney is a potential trade candidate in 2025.

Keegan only caught 32 games throughout his four-year Vanderbilt career, but his most likely path to being an impact player when he was drafted seemed to be via a return to catching full-time. Aside from a handful of games at first base in 2023, the Rays have deployed Keegan exclusively behind the plate in pro ball, and he’s caught about 80 games each of the last two seasons. Unfortunately, he struggles with pitch framing and ball-blocking enough to conclude that it’s unlikely he will stick behind the plate long-term.

The good news is that Keegan has performed well enough on offense to have prospect relevance even if he has to move back to first base. He slashed .285/.371/.435 at Double-A Montgomery in 2024 and is a career .288/.380/.457 hitter in the minors. Most of Keegan’s underlying Statcast-style hitting data is near the big league average at first base, with his contact ability being the one aspect of his offense that falls short. Given that Keegan has produced this way as a catcher, with his body taking a beating in part because he’s such a butcher, is it possible his bat would have another gear if he were just a clean-jersey’d first baseman? That’s plausible, but there is one other aspect of Keegan’s hitting that could give one pause: He’s basically never on time to pull fastballs. You can count on one hand the number of left-of-center-field hits Keegan had against heaters in 2024. It’s a sign he might struggle against big league velocity if he’s barely on time against Double-A offerings. The 2025 season is Keegan’s 40-man platform year, and it will be interesting to see how the Rays handle his development on defense as he tries to make a case for a roster spot.

Suarez has been on the prospect radar since he pitched 39 very efficient innings in the 2022 DSL with Miami, then was traded to Tampa Bay in an offseason 40-man crunch deal for Xavier Edwards. His velocity has been steadily climbing since then. He sat 90-94 in 2023 and then was in the 93-96 mph range in 2024, including toward the end of the year after Suarez had worked nearly twice as many innings as he had the prior season. You need a magnifying glass to see Suarez’s walk rate, which has been in the 3-5% range his entire career; he’s never had a BB/9 IP above 1.82 or a WHIP over 1.22 at any minor league level.

Suarez’s fastball punches above its weight thanks to its plus riding life and Suarez’s ability to command it to effective locations. It has 18 inches of induced vertical break from a slightly lower than average release height. Off of that he deploys a lot of cutters and sliders. The cutter is usually in the 87-91 mph range, while the slider is a two-plane offering in the 78-84 mph range, and he can manipulate it into a curveball shape. His secondary stuff isn’t especially nasty, but Suarez tends to locate it it in the right spot. He perhaps isn’t the athlete that Joe Ryan is, but he otherwise shares a number of similarities with him. He has fastball-heavy no. 4 starter upside and a very high floor because of his command.

Montgomery was moved to the bullpen in the latter half of 2024 and his stuff exploded. He was struggling in a piggyback role at Durham through July, and was running an ERA approaching 7.00 when his role changed. In short relief, Montgomery went from sitting 91-95 to sitting 96-98, sometimes for six outs at a time. He essentially scrapped his changeup in relief, and is working with that riding upper-90s fastball and an inconsistent slider in the 86-89 mph range. The fish-to-water nature of Montgomery’s shift suggests the Rays should just leave him in the bullpen. In addition to plus velocity, Monty’s fastball has vertical riding life. His slider’s movement is unpredictable, but for the last month of the season when it was suddenly 88 mph or so, it played like a plus pitch. Whether it’s in long relief or a late-inning role, Montgomery’s new level of stuff has him poised to play a high-leverage relief role when camp breaks in 2025.

Seymour had a dominant 2021, then made just a few starts in 2022 before he was shut down with a flexor strain; he had Tommy John that June. He missed the bulk of 2023 recovering from surgery but returned in time to toss 42 frames and strike out just under 30% of the hitters he faced. He was dominant in 2024 and worked a career-high 145 innings.

Suddenly Seymour is not only back, but perhaps better than ever before. Violent deception and a plus changeup drive his ability to miss bats. He has an NC-17 delivery with a grotesque head whack, but it doesn’t seem to inhibit his ability to throw strikes. His fastball sits an underwhelming 88-92 mph, but it holds its plane very well and, combined with the deception in his delivery, is playing like a plus pitch. His changeup has 10 ticks of separation from his fastball and he sells it like a seasoned used car salesman by maintaining his delivery’s effort and arm speed. Seymour has two breaking balls, with his 80-84 mph slider the superior offering. It has two-plane shape and often shows considerable depth, and it’s a really tough pitch for left-handed hitters to do much with. His curveball is a big, slow (69-74 mph) vertical breaker that is more of a strike-stealer than a pitch he’ll regularly rely on. He’ll also mix in a short, mid-upper 80s cutter that he uses as an additional weapon to stay off right-handers’ barrels.

Seymour is almost 26 years old, so his dominance over Double-A hitters was to be expected, but given how fresh he is off TJ, the way he’s sustained it start after quality start is very encouraging. We’re still skeptical this kind of delivery can hold up under starter’s innings, but Seymour is officially on his way to proving us wrong. We think he’ll likely serve as a really good multi-inning reliever (and occasional spot starter) where he can maximize his best offerings in short bursts.

Johnson looks more physical now than he did at Ball State, where he struggled with walks as a junior and only worked 53.2 innings. The Cubs shortened the 6-foot-6 righty’s arm action, and he was dominant at their A-ball affiliates before he was traded to Tampa Bay as part of the Isaac Paredes swap. When his first pro season was done, Johnson had a 2.79 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in a piggyback role in 84 combined innings across both A-ball levels, and had struck out 120 men. His velocity climbed in the middle of the season and, after sitting 92 early, he was more 94-95 as the deadline approached, a range he maintained for the rest of the year.

The shorter arm action also helped Johnson to have more consistent feel for release, and he’s throwing plenty of strikes with his funky tailing fastball, which has bat-missing ability thanks to its uphill angle. His breaking ball, usually in the 82-85 mph range, is comfortably plus, with tight, late two-plane movement. If Johnson can improve his changeup, which is currently below average, then he’ll have a starter’s coffer of pitches. His arm circle is so comically short and tight that it may not be in the cards for him to do that, at least in a traditional sense. Johnson has a middle relief floor with the fastball/breaking ball combo he’s currently wielding, and also has some late-bloomer characteristics (his size, small school background, a fairly new delivery) that indicate he might be able to keep improving.

Santana signed for just over $2 million, nearly $700,000 below the slot value as the 31st overall pick, and slashed .240/.300/.305 at Low-A in 2024, his first full pro season. Santana remains a high-variance dev project with exciting athleticism and hitting hands, but concerning breaking ball recognition and chase. He’s still quite young and frail, but Santana makes up for some of what he lacks in physicality with plus athleticism. It’s what helps him swing pretty hard from both sides of the plate, especially the left side, despite his size. His swing is long to enter the hitting zone, but his short levers help keep him from getting beat entirely, and this allows him to spray fastballs to the opposite field. Santana is surprisingly dangerous against pitches on the inner third, where his bat path is geared for power. He can button a fastball but struggles to recognize spin, and he goes fishing for breaking balls below the zone quite often. Unless he matures in this area, it’s going to be important for him to fill out and develop meaningful power to support a low-OBP profile.

Santana is a rangy and acrobatic defender whose arm strength is a fit at shortstop, though he needs to stay on top of the ball more consistently on his deeper throws. There’s uncommon offensive upside for a shortstop here, but Santana’s chase adds a significant risk element to his profile, rounding his FV down a shade below what his tools would usually dictate.

Smith got a cool $1.2 million as Seattle’s 2023 fourth rounder and was in the middle of his first full season when he was traded to Tampa Bay as part of the Randy Arozarena deal. His impressive combined batting line between the two orgs — .288/.401/.473 — was good enough for a 139 wRC+.

The rail-thin Smith is an above-average athlete with above-average physical projection. He has the prototypical outfielder’s high-waisted, tapered frame, and he has the speed to develop in center field, but he isn’t a polished defender there right now. Though Smith has some exciting, nascent ability on offense (such as his super loose hitting hands), he lacks barrel feel, and we caution readers against taking his 2024 surface stats at face value. Smith’s lever length causes him to inside-out a lot of fastballs, and though he was pulling the ball more often in 2024 than he was as an amateur, he’s still late to the contact point a lot of the time and his swing often isn’t well-connected. This is a developmental outfield prospect who needs to add strength, which will hopefully allow him to have a more consistent and authoritative swing. If the strength really comes then maybe we’re talking something in the Jake Marisnick-to-Mitch Haniger range.

Urbina’s stuff climbed throughout 2024; he was sitting 92-94 at the end of May, but by the end of the season, he was sitting 94-97 for five innings at a time. Combined between the complex level and four Low-A starts at the end of the season, he worked 65 innings, struck out 57, and walked 29, but 10 of those walks came in just two of Urbina’s outings, and he walked just four batters combined in the final month of the season. In addition to plus velocity, Urbina has a potentially plus bullet-style slider, which was parked in the 85-88 mph range late in the year. He worked more with a low-80s curveball early in the season, but by the end of the year, that pitch was relegated to strike-stealing duty. The fastball/slider combo of a good middle reliever is already here, and Urbina seems to be evolving rapidly as a strike-thrower. If he can find a splitter or changeup during the next couple of seasons, he’ll more comfortably have a starter’s mix. At the rate he developed in 2024, that seems pretty feasible.

Harrison was a local high schooler committed to Florida State who signed for just shy of $850,000. He didn’t pitch after the 2023 draft and was somewhat conservatively assigned to the Complex League to start 2024. He ended up splitting his innings between Port Charlotte and Low-A Charleston, combining for 72.2 IP, a 3.34 ERA, a 1.24 WHIP and a 29.4% strikeout rate. Harrison overwhelmed hitters with mid-90s velocity and a plus-flashing changeup. He’s a bigger, more physically mature righty, with an innings-eating 6-foot-4 frame. Harrison has a rather upright delivery, his fastball has downhill plane and tailing movement, and he could have a sinker that’s a nightmare for righties. Since Harrison is of relatively mature build, we might not see much more velocity than he’s currently working with. Instead, his key area of development will be slider quality and consistency. His slider is firm, often 85-87 mph, but it has variable depth and finish. Harrison’s changeup has action that pairs nicely with the sink of his fastball, and the pitch had an absurd miss rate in a fairly small 2024 sample. Still a great distance from the bigs, Harrison is a developmental workhorse starter.

Lesko was one of the nastier high school pitching prospects of the last 10 years, with riding mid-90s velocity and the best high school changeup a lot of scouts had ever seen. A pre-draft Tommy John precipitated a draft day fall to San Diego, deep in the first round. Upon his return from TJ, Lesko’s stuff was intact, but his command was gone. He walked 16.5% of opposing hitters in the Padres system last year, and then his walk rate exploded to 31.1% after he was traded to the Rays as part of the Jason Adam swap.

Lesko simply cannot find the zone right now. His release point is all over the place, and no matter what pitch he tries to lay in there, he just can’t control it. Toward the end of 2024, opposing hitters were just standing in the box, visibly checked out, waiting for their free pass. Even if he had the nastiest stuff on the planet, Lesko would be struggling to get outs with his current lack of command. He needs to find at least one more grade of control to reach the big leagues, and probably two if he’s going to stay there for very long. Realistically, Lesko projects as a changeup-heavy reliever in the Tommy Kahnle mold, with a dominant Devin Williams-style role (yes, Lesko’s changeup is that good) as the right tail outcome if his control gets to a place where he can be trusted in do-or-die situations.

Wild has had a three-tick velocity spike since college and is now sitting 92 with plus-plus vertical life. He commands his slider much better than his heater, which is fine considering fastballs that ride like Wild’s have a lot of in-zone margin for error and miss bats even when they’re mislocated. This helped Wild keep his walk rate down in a first full pro season — 121.1 IP, 11.20 K/9, 2.30 BB/9, 2.82 ERA — during which he was quickly promoted to High-A. Wild’s slider tends to finish on the plate and live more off hitters’ surprise that it isn’t his fastball rather than its own nastiness. He might benefit from a second breaking ball, be it a cutter or a curveball, the latter of which feels logical to pair with his rising heater. If Wild’s changeup can develop (it flashes bat-missing sink every once in a while, but sails on him way more), then he’ll be able to pitch in a good rotation despite having 40-grade velo.

Barrios was acquired from the Brewers in exchange for Aaron Civale a few weeks before the 2024 trade deadline. He was hitting well at High-A Wisconsin prior to the trade and then went ice cold after it, slashing a combined .288/.342/.367 on the year. Barrios is a twitchy little shortstop who plays a fun and effective style of defense. His first step is incredible, and he has plus range, acrobatic actions, and a surprisingly strong arm for a little guy. He’s a very skinny young fellow who projects to play a glove-first utility role in the big leagues.

There are times when it looks like Barrios is a child swinging a tree branch, but he still finds a way to put the bat on the baseball. He had a 11.7% K% and 83% contact rate on the year, but a lot of that contact was light, oppo spray. Can we project on Barrio’s strength? He’s only 20 and his measurables for a player that age are average, but he’s so thin and frail looking right now that he might be in the “Carlos Tocci Zone,” the sort of athlete who struggles to add mass at all. Barrios’ excellent defense still gives him a great chance to have a prolonged big league career in the mold of Rey Sanchez and Jack Wilson.

Raised in a French-speaking suburb of Montreal, Pitre became the fourth-highest drafted Quebecer (Phillippe Aumont, taken 11th overall in 2007, is the highest) when the Rays took him in the second round in 2024. After riding the bench as a freshman, Pitre hit well for two years at Kentucky, with more walks than strikeouts in both seasons and a .301/.420/.519 line as a junior. Like most of college baseball, Pitre enjoyed a huge power uptick in 2024, hitting 10 of his 11 career homers.

A compact-stroked, contact-oriented second baseman, Pitre has some pull power on the inner third of the plate, but otherwise tends to work the opposite field. He tracks pitches well and gently guides the barrel around the zone, willing to take what’s given a lot of the time. Pitre’s swing isn’t especially athletic; it’s very conservative in its style and might benefit from more lower body movement as a means of unlocking power.

Pitre is a good second base defender who deserves a pro look at shortstop just to see if he can do it. If it turns out he can, it will be a little less important for him to access more power than he currently seems capable of. As a second base-only fit, he has a second-division ceiling. At shortstop, Pitre could be a Joey Wendle type.

Five years removed from his draft night, Misner still touts the premium size and athleticism commensurate with his $2.1 million signing bonus out of Missouri. With the plus foot speed to run down some gappers, he’s fine part-time in center field, though he would provide more defensive value in a full-time corner outfield role. But full-time work will likely prove to be elusive, as Misner has a long and involved hand load that drives a disqualifying amount of in-zone miss; he threatened a 30% strikeout rate in his second full year at Triple-A Durham. For a would-be specialist, Misner lived in contradiction in 2024. His swing is generally defanged by plus velocity, but his only hit in a 1-for-15, 10-strikeout big league cameo was a single off a 101-mph Mason Miller heater. He’s been getting plus raw power grades for the last decade, but Misner didn’t hit a ball 110 mph in a game last season even while putting together a 111 wRC+ at Durham. A lefty reserve outfielder who can moonlight at all three spots and club mistakes can be a folk hero in the right situation, but Misner’s long swing mandates perfect timing in more ways than one.

Simpson spent the majority of 2024 at High-A Lansing but reached Double-A Midland by the end of the year. He was traded to the Rays as part of the Jeffrey Springs deal in late 2024. Simpson is a power-hitting corner infield prospect with strikeout issues due to a grooved swing. Plus bat speed and strength make him a threat from foul pole to foul pole, and he posted an .860 OPS in 2024, but he also struck out in just under 25% of his trips to the plate. Simpson’s bat path has loft and stays in the hitting zone for a long time, but he’s prone to chase (29% in 2024) and he doesn’t move the barrel around especially well, which makes it difficult to see a viable path to an average hit tool. Simpson does a good job of producing contact in the air and his ability to carry his above-average raw power over to game action will be vital due to his first base defensive fit.

Simpson played a dozen games at third base in Lansing but didn’t see any time at the hot corner in college or following his promotion to Midland. It will be interesting to see whether he gets more time at third with the Rays because he’s capable of making routine plays there, and he would really benefit from being a viable defender at another position besides first. Simpson could be a Patrick Wisdom type player.

Barack Obama was still in office when Mangum won SEC Freshman of the Year, yet he found himself on a 40-man roster for the first time last November. After slashing a contact-heavy .317/.357/.442 at Triple-A Durham in 2024, Mangum now has a good chance to make his major league debut before his 30th birthday. In exchange for the power conference’s all-time hits lead, Mangum was bestowed with The Curse of the Hand-Eye. He can square up pitches all over the zone from both sides, but his gift for contact puts his most half-cocked swing decisions into action. His top-end exit velos are only a tick below average, but his power production will play another grade below that due to excessive chase. A spare outfielder role is contingent upon Mangum’s passable center field defense, and while he still touts plus run times, he makes do more on clean reads and jumps than closing bursts, providing for few highlights but even fewer adventures.

Murray is a high-ball hitter with a great minor league contact track record. In 2024, he slashed .290/.328/.424 while playing at least a little bit of each infield position (though none better than average). Murray’s swing is driven by his top hand, allowing him to get on top of high pitches with all-fields doubles pop. His stiff lower half and tendency to chase make it tough for him to scoop low secondary pitches, and he swings over top of them fairly often. It’s a significant enough issue to cap Murray’s ceiling in the bench infield area, or perhaps in a platoon defined by opposing pitchers’ tendencies/locations rather than their handedness.

Dowd shifted into the bullpen while he was at Stanford, but the Rays have revisited a starting role for him, and Dowd’s first pro season went about as well as one could have hoped. At Charleston, he worked 110.2 innings (easily a career high) and had a 2.85 ERA and a 9.9% walk rate, which tied a career-low from his college days. By the very end the season, Dowd was twirling some great six- and seven-inning starts with a workable number of walks.

Dowd was sitting 89-92 mph as a starter, and his two most-used secondary pitches — a mid-80s changeup and slider — are both below-average pitches that he commanded surprisingly well in 2024. It appeared Dowd was forcing himself to pitch off of his two worse secondary offerings in an effort to develop them rather than lean on his knee-buckling curveball, which was maybe the best breaking ball in the entire 2023 draft. Dowd isn’t great at creating movement on either his changeup or slider, but he is pretty good at locating them, especially for a guy who was mostly a college reliever. As good as his curveball is, its effectiveness is more about spin efficiency and plane than raw spin, so its excellence won’t necessarily translate into a good slider (his slider averages about 2,300 rpm). Dowd’s vertical arm slot has long helped his fastball play at the belt, which pairs nicely with the curveball. If indeed he can find a third pitch, he’ll profile as a backend starter; if not, then he’ll hopefully throw a little harder in the bullpen and utilize his curveball a lot more.

Flewelling is an exciting developmental catcher prospect with big power potential. He hit a ball 112 mph at the Combine, and his swing has big hip-and-shoulder separation and explosion. He was also very young for the 2024 draft class. Flewelling is a very raw receiver with an average arm, a from-scratch project behind the plate as a defender. He’s risky and is likely to be a slow burn even if things work out for him, but he has considerable upside as a power-hitting lefty catcher.

Coret signed for $1.6 million in January and will begin his pro career in the 2025 DSL. He is a fairly typical righty-hitting corner outfield prospect from the international market. He has a big, projectable frame and already swings quite hard. His hands work in a long loop, and Coret lacks precise feel for the barrel. Coret has a sizable amount of hit tool risk for this reason, with his contact performance the key first-year variable to monitor here.

While most of the other 2025 international shortstop prospects who signed for less than $2 million are good defenders without a ton of offensive upside, Solano’s longer-levered frame has more room for strength at maturity, and with that will hopefully come power. That said, Solano does have hit tool risk. He currently has an enormous bat wrap and a huge stride that might be too elaborate to time consistently. He’s a graceful defender for his size and will hopefully grow into another grade of arm strength as he fills out. He’s a risky power projection shortstop prospect who signed for a shade over $1 million.

Set to begin his pro career in the 2025 DSL is Medina, a medium-framed, switch-hitting middle infielder with a well-rounded toolset who signed for $1.1 million in January. A lack of size prevents any of those tools from being projected to plus, and there are scouts who think Medina is a better fit at second base than at shortstop. Medina’s swings are like mirror images of each other; it’s remarkable how similar they are, as most switch-hitters have two distinct cuts, regardless of their age and experience. Medina is a sound fielder with great footwork and hands, but his arm strength is not yet a shortstop fit. This is a nice low-level prospect to monitor for strength gains, because so much of the rest of Medina’s profile is quite favorable.

Pineda signed for $1.75 million in January of 2024 and had a solid pro debut, posting a .253/.378/.364 line and a 109 wRC+ in the DSL. He has good looking bat speed and mature power, but he is a smaller-framed player who lacks big long-term strength projection. Pineda runs and throws well, and is a virtual lock to stay in center field as he matures, in part because it’s tough to envision him outgrowing the position. Scouts also like how hard he plays. Pineda’s contact performance in his debut season is a little scary (70% contact in the DSL), but he remains a higher-profile complex-level follow for 2025.

Nichols was a good college starter at Arizona and has been deployed as a starter so far in pro ball, but his fastball’s “round down” elements (like the pitch’s plane and its mild amount of sink) don’t really allow it to miss bats, and his command also detracts from its effectiveness. Nichols is talented, however. He throws hard (94-97 for the last three seasons) and has a nasty two-plane slider that appeared to be more sweeper-y in 2024, as well as a changeup that could improve because of his delivery’s arm speed. Especially after a successful first full pro season in the rotation — 71.1 IP, 1.21 WHIP, 22.9% K%, 7.6% BB% — he merits development as a starter, but realistically, Nichols projects as a good middle reliever.

Peoples is a whippy-armed righty who signed for $350,000 back in 2019 rather than go to Xavier. He has been developed as a starter since entering pro ball, but he’s struggled enough with his control to invite a projection to the bullpen, especially now that his 40-man platform year has come and gone. Peoples carried a 1.16 WHIP and 3.42 ERA across 12 2024 Double-A starts before he was shut down with an injury in mid-June and didn’t pitch the rest of the season. He has looked healthy during 2025 Cactus League play, as Peoples has been sitting in his usual 93-96 mph range coming out of the bullpen.

A loose, fluid athlete with a beautiful arm stroke, Peoples’ arm action was shortened in 2023, but he’s still had trouble throwing strikes. He creates near perfect backspinning action on his fastball, which lives above the zone, and off of that Peoples tries to drop hard, upper-80s slider/cutters into the top of the box. He lacks a plus secondary weapon right now, but his changeup looked good in limited 2024 action, and that pitch might have another gear with time and increased usage. We’re betting on Peoples’ athleticism and delivery here, and still think he has a future as a fastball-heavy up/down reliever who has a chance to entrench himself in a more regular big league role if one of his secondary pitches improves.

Lancaster was a two-way junior college player for two seasons at Itawamba before he transferred to Missouri for his junior year and pretty much stuck to playing the outfield with the Tigers. Then he transferred to Louisiana Tech and played both ways again in 2022. Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2023, he is now focusing solely on pitching and has had A-ball success in two seasons. Lancaster has developed a great breaking ball in a pretty short amount of time and looks like a pretty standard lefty middle reliever. His slider is excellent and he commands it to the glove-side corner of the plate with consistency. It moves late and has tight, two-plane action that slips below the barrels of opposing lefties. Lancaster’s low-90s fastball punches above its weight a bit because it features above-average vertical movement. This is a nice scouting and dev success story for the Rays, who have a future specialist on their hands conjured from an undrafted former two-way player.

The gigantic Vernon had a velocity spike late in his college career, going from averaging 92 mph to averaging 94-95 and touching 98 over his final few outings with North Carolina Central. He has now reached the upper levels of the minors and has continued to have bat-missing success, but Vernon wasn’t added to the Rays’ 40-man last offseason and went unselected in the Rule 5 Draft. Here, he continues to project as a middle reliever.

Vernon’s pro transition from early-career swingman to single-inning relief role is now complete; after making a handful of starts in 2022 and 2023, every one of his 2024 outings came in a one- or two- inning burst out of the ‘pen. Vernon has much better feel for landing his upper-80s slider than he does his other pitches. That pitch played like a plus offering in 2024 even though it lives more off its velocity than movement. Vernon’s fastball averages 95 mph, and he held that velocity into the fall, when he pitched for Team USA’s Premier12 group. His heater tends to sail on him fairly often. His changeup flashes bat-missing tail, but isn’t often located enticingly. He isn’t an exceptional athlete or pitch executor, but Vernon is a fairly standard middle reliever whose stuff is seasoned by some deception due to his size and nearly seven feet of extension.

Workman went to Soddy Daisy High School in Tennessee and pitched for the Savannah Bananas during the summer of 2020 after his junior year was squashed by COVID. Drafted as a fourth-year junior out of Division-II Lee University in 2021, Workman has climbed the minor league ladder and ended his 2024 season in Durham. He pitched 146 innings in 2024 and carried a 2.96 ERA. At the very end of the year, Workman was still touching 95-96 and sitting 93. His fastball is average when properly elevated, but it’s vulnerable to big damage in the zone. Workman will mix in a terse cutter/slider and an average changeup. He fills the zone, is a well-built 6-foot-4, and his delivery is easy and consistent. There isn’t a plus pitch here, but Workman’s durability and strike-throwing consistency should enable him to play a spot starter role.

Martin was up to 98 at Oklahoma State, where he was a draft-eligible sophomore reliever in 2022. He rocketed up draft boards late in the spring when he punched out 16 hitters in a 6.2-inning relief appearance during a Regional elimination game, working 93-96 for most of that outing. Like a lot of the college draft picks in this org, the Rays have tried to upcycle Martin into a starter, and so far it’s working. He coasted through both A-ball levels the last couple of years and spent the second half of 2024 at Double-A, where his peripherals backed up into more of an average area. Martin hasn’t sustained his peak 2022 velo and was more 90-94 with his fastball in 2024, but plus vertical break and above-average extension help enable a fastball-heavy approach despite that middling velo. Aside from his curveball, which has movement that pairs with his heater, Martin doesn’t have a secondary pitch that’s performing at an average or better level. His durability and fastball playability make him a likely spot starter, but we’d like to see better secondary stuff teased out of Martin before considering him a lock to eventually make the Rays’ rotation.

Vasil looked like a late first/comp round prospect in high school, then suffered an untimely injury as a senior and only pitched a little bit before the draft, sitting his usual 92-95 mph. He ended up at Virginia, where he regressed, and he was sitting 91 throughout his draft year. Like a lot of pitchers who leave Virginia, Vasil had a rebound in pro ball and was back to sitting 92-95 for a couple of seasons before his velocity trended down again in 2024, when Vasil was knocked around at Triple-A Syracuse. Vasil has a deep coffer of below-average pitches, though his curveball played better toward the end of last season. At peak, it looked like he’d compete for a rotation spot on a good team, but right now he looks more like a spot starter. With so many Rays arms returning from injury, it’s going to be an uphill climb for Vasil to make the active roster as a Rule 5 pick.

Even though he was an older prospect, Teus was left back in the DSL for a second consecutive season and was utterly dominant, posting a 0.96 WHIP and striking out 71 in 54 innings. Teus is a twitchy, undersized southpaw with a deceptive delivery and quality secondary stuff. He sits about 92 but will touch 95, he hides the baseball forever, and his fastball’s carry gives it belt-high bat-missing ability. Teus’ high slot helps hide his curveball, which doesn’t pop out of his hand and instead just dives in a way that’s tough to decipher, while his arm speed helps sell his changeup, which has tail and fade. This is a sneaky backend starter’s mix, it’s just that so far, it has only been productive against immature hitters who are much younger than Teus. With a strong 70 or so innings in 2025, he’ll move into at least the 40 FV tier.

Four years after being the third piece in the Emilio Pagán–Manuel Margot trade, the former second rounder made his big league debut last year as a third catcher during a 15-game September call-up, which feels about right for him. Driscoll doesn’t show special agility or hands for a catcher, but a whole hog investment in a one-knee’d stance has him in position much more often than not, though he does post below-average pop times. With average raw power and some feel for lift, Driscoll, who has a career .269/.348/.437 line in the minors, can put elevated mistake breaking balls into the right field seats. That can lead him to chase velocity at the letters, which his below-average bat speed and prominent bat tilt don’t allow him to touch. Big league arms were very content to let Driscoll chop lower-third soft stuff during his cameo, and life as an up-and-down catcher won’t offer much room for adjustment.

Ledbetter transferred to Mississippi State for his draft year after two stellar underclass seasons at Samford and hit .320/.452/.574 against the SEC in 2023. Assigned to High-A Bowling Green in 2024, his strikeouts really spiked, and he ran a 28.3% K% during an otherwise successful season that saw him hit .273/.339/.484. Ledbetter has a classic low-ball swing and can golf loud contact to all fields, but he’s very vulnerable to elevated fastballs, resulting in a 68% contact rate in 2024. He’s a fair center field defender who needs to retain the speed he currently has to stay there. Doing so should give Ledbetter a fringe 40-man fit as a power-hitting extra outfielder.

Part of the Zach Eflin trade return from Baltimore, Horvath is a twitchy multi-positional player with good power for a hitter his size. He’s smaller and wiry, but he swings hard, his hands are strong through contact, and Horvath generate doubles-quality spray aided by his speed. Horvath is also an incredible 49-for-52 in career pro stolen base attempts, and he sure looked safe on his lone 2024 caught stealing with Bowling Green. He’s taken bags at an 88% clip dating back to college. Limiting Horvath’s role is his defense. He’s error-prone on the infield, both at second and third base. Baltimore gave him some outfield reps prior to the trade, but the Rays did less of that. Defensive versatility is going to be an important part of Horvath’s role, and that piece of his game needs to be ironed out throughout 2025 and 2026.

Bush was acquired from the Padres in the Jason Adam trade ahead of the 2024 deadline and slashed .272/.363/.363 combined across both orgs’ High-A affiliates. His carrying tool is his speed. Bush is among the most explosive and graceful runners in all of baseball, capable of reaching first base in four seconds flat from the right side of the dish. His speed gives him huge long-term ceiling as a center field defender if he can continue to improve there with lots of pro reps. Right now, he’s capable of making some spectacular plays, but looks a little uncomfortable at the catch point on the occasional routine one. Bush began using a bat with a weighted knob while with the Padres and started diving to the outer portion of the plate to cover breaking balls. He struggles to handle fastballs (71% contact rate versus heaters in 2024) and his offensive ceiling is fairly low. Right now, he projects as a specialist due to his speed, but if Bush’s center field defense improves, he’ll be more of a true fifth outfielder.

Brachi signed for $800,000 in January of 2024 and was ranked higher on our international amateur board than a player getting that kind of bonus typically would be. He’s a gritty scout favorite with limited tools but advanced baseball acumen and feel to hit. Brachi slashed .247/.348/.276 in his pro debut and looked better at shortstop than was expected when he signed. He has a long-term utility look.

A precocious shortstop defender, Garces has exceptional footwork and actions, and enough arm strength for the left side of the infield. He’s somewhat more projectable than the Rays’ other high-profile signees from the 2025 international class, but he’s lacking in bat speed. Garces’ upside is contingent upon him getting stronger; otherwise, his ceiling is realistically that of a good-fielding utilityman. He signed for $1.6 million.

Orze has a plus-plus changeup and sits 93-95, but he has struggled to throw strikes for most of the last couple of seasons. He was acquired from the Mets in a trade for Jose Siri and should be a multi-inning up/down reliever for the next few years. He could end up as a Trevor Richards type reliever if he can throw strikes. Here he’s evaluated as a fairly wild up/down option.

Gervase is an enormous 6-foot-10 righty who came to Tampa at the 2024 deadline in a trade for Tyler Zuber. He’s struck out a little over 15/9 IP the last couple of years thanks mostly to deception rather than stuff, as despite his size, he has a 5-foot-4 release height and generates nearly seven-and-a-half feet of extension. Even though his fastball sits 91-94 mph, it’s a nightmare in on the hands of righties. His arm slot aids his slider’s playability, but that pitch lacks consistency because of Gervase’s lack of command, and the same is true of his low-90s cutter. He’s a high-probability relief contributor who might be limited to an up/down role because of his control.

Acquired from the Pirates in exchange for Ji Man Choi, Hartman has spent the last couple of seasons in Tampa’s system and climbed to Double-A late in 2024. He was still pumping 96-98 mph gas late in the season and in the AFL, though the pitch plays down a tad due to its downhill plane and a lack of movement. Hartman’s upper-80s slider is plus, and he commands it more consistently than his fastball. Still, his command is fringy overall, which has him in more of an up/down relief bucket even though he has consistent middle inning stuff.

Lavender, who was selected in the Rule 5 Draft last December, had the internal brace style of Tommy John early in 2024 and will start the 2025 season on the 60-day IL; he should be back in mid-to-late summer. In 2023, he struck out 86 hitters in 54.1 innings, and Lavender has a career K/9 of 13.7 even though his fastball, which he throws 65% of the time, sits just 91 mph. That’s because he has one of the more deceptive deliveries in the minors. He almost looks like someone who learned to throw with their left arm later in life. There are some Hideki Okajima elements to his delivery, including Lavender’s head whack, which prevents him from seeing his target at release. He gets way, way, way down the mound, generating seven and a half feet of extension. His arm action is also super whippy, and the line on his fastball is incredibly difficult for hitters to get on top of. The rest of his repertoire isn’t great, but Lavender smells like an up/down reliever on the back of his fastball alone. If he can come out of TJ rehab with a good second pitch or more fastball velocity, look out.

Alberto spent parts of four seasons in rookie ball and finally left the womb of the complex in 2024. He is still a long-term dev project, even at age 23. Alberto is a statuesque 6-foot-8 and sits 94-97, but wayward command plagues his fastball’s effectiveness. The same is true of his mid-80s slider, which has above-average length but no consistency. With even 40-grade control, Alberto should comfortably profile in middle relief, though that’s still more projection than it is a reflection of his imminent role.

Johnson was one of the most projectable college pitching prospects in the 2022 draft and came to Tampa from Miami as part of the 40-man deadline deal for Xavier Edwards a few offseasons ago. After an efficient strike-throwing season in 2023, Johnson had surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow early in 2024 and didn’t pitch until the very end of the season. He ended up working just 16.1 innings across seven games, and looked about the same as he had pre-surgery. Johnson sits about 93 mph, and his size negatively impacts his fastball’s playability because its angle puts it on plane with hitters’ bat paths. His slider and changeup were not as crisp last year, but both have been capable of getting whiffs in the past, which was impressive considering that Johnson spent just one collegiate season as a starter. This is purely a wait-and-see valuation of Johnson, who looks like a low-variance spot starter unless something can be done to aid his fastball’s playability.