Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2024 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival
1. SS Junior Caminero | 20 | MLB | 2023
Caminero smashed 31 home runs in 117 games across two levels, slashing .309/.373/.548 with a 17.1 percent strikeout rate in 81 Double-A games on his way to a late-season promotion to the show. To my eyes, he’s the leading candidate to open the 2024 season as the club’s starting shortstop. Maybe they go a different way, considering he’s not a great defender and has spent a lot of minor league time at third base. Tim Anderson feels like a good fit on a prove-it deal, if they’re looking for a moderately priced option in free agency. Taylor Walls is a possibility, in house, but he hit .201 last year and got worse throughout the season. If he can handle the workload on defense, Caminero has the talent to rejuvenate a team and fanbase that will be missing its missing building block until it manages to forget him.
2. 1B Xavier Isaac | 20 | A+ | 2025
A big lefty bat at 6’3” 240 lbs, Isaac is more athletic in the box than most guys his size. He’s got good hips and fast hands, so lookout ladies and pitchers everywhere, Xavier Isaac Hayes is coming to an arena near you. He hit six home runs in just 12 High-A games after improving throughout the year in Low-A and recording a 14.9 percent walk rate and 21.3 percent strikeout rate. When a high school first baseman goes in the first round to a team that knows prospects, my ears perk up. It’s not only that he’ll have to hit his way to the majors that intrigues me, or that the bat will always have to carry the profile, but also the reality that most prospect lists won’t ever reflect his fantasy value because they prioritize defense. .
3. 3B Curtis Mead | 23 | MLB | 2023
Happy New Year! Another round of Mead for all my friends! Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind, the Rays would be cool with that, at least where some acquaintances are concerned. Mead, like Caminero, can help the fanbase forget some old infielders if he plays in the majors like he did in Triple-A in 2023, slashing .294/.385/.515 with nine home runs and four stolen bases in 61 games. His calling card has been plate skills, and that held true at the top minor league level with a 12.6-to-17.3 walk-to-strikeout rate. It’s not easy to see how he fits into the lineup early this year outside of a short-side platoon, but if he hits in small doses, something will probably pour his way.
4. SS Carson Williams | 20 | AAA | 2024
If Caminero can’t handle the six on defense and Walls can’t clear the bar on offense, Carson Williams will be waiting in the wings. He was sent to Triple-A after just six games in Double-A but could open the year back there considering he hit .077 with a 40 percent strikeout rate during his four games in Durham. He’d struck out at a 31.8 percent clip in 105 High-A games, so the swing and miss comes as no surprise. Making consistent contact is the only thing Williams hasn’t done on a ball field, where his double-plus defense and easy power will make him a starter sooner than later. He hit 23 homers and stole 17 bags in those 105 High-A games and might even make a run at the job in spring training if he can keep improving the plate skills that were on an upward trajectory in 2023.
5. OF Jonny DeLuca | 25 | MLB | 2023
One thing you can say about the Tyler Glasnow (and Manny Margot) trade: it should work out better than that slapdick Blake Snell trade for Francisco Mejia, Xavier Edwards, Blake Hunt, and Luis Patiño. Having multiple outs did not help that time, but it should help to have Jonny DeLuca along with Ryan Pepiot this time around. A 5’11” 196 lb right handed hitter, DeLuca controls the zone well and has never struck out more than 20 percent of the time in eight stints across six leagues and has typically walked at roughly a ten percent clip. In addition to the plate skills, DeLuca has always produced power and speed. He hit 19 home runs and stole 13 bases in 97 games across three levels in 2023 and will be a fantasy factor if he can crack this lineup.
6. 3B Brayden Taylor | 21 | A | 2026
A decorated career as a three-year starter at TCU led the Rays to select Taylor 19th overall in the 2023 draft. A left-handed hitter and plus defender on the infield, he calls Brandon Lowe to mind as a power hitter with patience and speed. He struck out 32.3 percent of the time in 22 Low-A games but managed five homers, nine steals (in nine attempts) and a 141 wRC+ anyway.
7. LHP Jacob Lopez | 26 | MLB | 2023
Missed 2022 with Tommy John surgery but came back strong in 2023, pitching his way from Double-A to the majors across 119.2 innings, 12.1 of them in the majors. He’s probably on the outside looking in at the starting rotation right now, but Taj Bradley struggled as a rookie, Shane Baz is coming back from his own TJ operation, and Zack Littell is a low-strikeout relief convert who pitched into the sixth inning just eight times last year. Chances are Lopez will be needed at some point regardless of how spring training turns out. Lopez recorded a 2.57 ERA in Double-A and 2.72 ERA in Triple-A and would be an interesting play for Wins even in a spot-starting role.
8. 3B Austin Shenton | 26 | AAA | 2024
A left handed corner bat with plus power, Shenton smacked 29 home runs between Double and Triple-A, bouncing back from a relatively disappointing 2022 season. His wRC+ outcomes of 157 (in 73 AA games) and 158 (in 61 AAA games) are in line with what Tampa was wanting when they selected him from Seattle in the Diego Castillo trade. He’s not a great defender and strikes out almost 30 percent of the time but looks like a Luke Raley type extra bat that Tampa takes to the bank year over year.
9. LHP Mason Montgomery | 23 | AAA | 2024
Montgomery thrives on a plus changeup that mixes well with his solid fastball/slider duo to give him options against hitters from both sides of the plate. He generated some early hype by dominating High-A in 2022 but settled into more reasonable outcomes at Double-A, a level he repeated in 2023 despite logging 54.1 innings and a 2.48 ERA the year before. His return trip didn’t go as well, netting him a 4.18 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in 107.2 innings. The club promoted him to Triple-A anyway after 36 Double-A starts, and Montgomery responded with a 2.70 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in 16 innings across four starts.
10. C Dominic Keegan | 22 | A+ | 2026
A bat-first prospect the Rays are hoping can develop into a major league backstop with reps, Keegan showed solid plate skills in Low-A (58 games) and High-A (48 games), slashing .287/.386/.467 with 13 home runs. He’s a right-handed hitter at six-foot, 210 lbs who smashed five home runs in 13 Cape Cod League games in 2021 and eight home runs in 32 Florida Collegiate League games in 2020. Keegan can thump with a wooden bat and has been doing so for a while.
Thanks for reading!
