'Hyper-transactional' Rays stockpiled prospect talent in offseason

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The Rays' organization has a very simple philosophy that's cyclical: Build from within, get guys to the big leagues, acquire a ton of new talent. Rinse, repeat.

In our 2025 Spring Training report from Rays camp, it was noted that Tampa Bay’s Top 30 prospect list ahead of the season had 13 players on it who weren’t in the organization a year prior. A total of 10 of those came via trade. This year? The new faces number is 14, with half coming via the trade market.

“It’s what we do, it’s what our model is,” Rays assistant general manager Kevin Ibach said. “We have to be hyper-transactional. We have to always have a pipeline of talent that we can infuse into the big league level. Every offseason brings new faces and I think that getting to know those players, it’s exciting to see them and get them acclimated in camp here.

“When we run out of that pipeline, that’s going to be a bad situation for us. I tell these players every year when they come into Spring Training that you have an opportunity to make an impact in this organization. It’s a great place to be a prospect.”

Two big trades happened during the offseason, so this spring is the first real time the Rays’ staff is seeing them en masse. The December Shane Baz trade with the Orioles netted four players in the new Top 30, while the three-team trade that sent Brandon Lowe, Jake Mangum and Mason Montgomery to the Pirates netted the club a pair of new prospects from the Astros. As is Tampa Bay’s tendency, the players will be found across several levels.

Jacob Melton (Rays’ No. 4 prospect) has been in big league camp all spring, and while he hasn’t put up the best overall numbers, he does have a pair of homers. And, as Ibach puts it, “hits the ball as hard as anyone in big league camp not named Junior Caminero,” while playing all three outfield spots. Anderson Brito (No. 6) opened a lot of eyes among the Rays pitching group and executives when he was pumping 99 mph fastballs on his first day on the backfields. Strike-throwing has been an issue in his career at the lower levels, but Tampa Bay has a good track record of getting guys in the zone more and he’s already showing some adjustments that are paying some early dividends in this regard.

Austin Overn, Michael Forret, Caden Bodine and Slater de Brun all came in that Baz deal. Overn (No. 26), a speedster who could give Chandler Simpson and Homer Bush a real race -- and he has a homer in big league action -- should roam center field at Double-A Montgomery, where Forret (No. 8) and his deep arsenal should be in the rotation. Bodine (No. 13) and de Brun (No. 10) are 2025 draftees who were moved before they really got their careers started. Bodine, the college catcher, should go to High-A Bowling Green while de Brun, the high-school outfielder, should slot in at Single-A Charleston.

“We use the phrase a lot that shooters shoot,” Ibach said. “We have to go out there and make trades. Some are going to work out, some are not. But if you’re continuing to contribute to this pipeline, you know that’s the mindset that we have going into every offseason, every Trade Deadline, trying to get as many bites of the apple as we can. And we pride ourselves on our depth.”

Breakout candidates: The high school bats from 2025 Draft

While first-round pick Daniel Pierce, the No. 14 overall pick in the Draft, is the headliner from the Class of 2025, he’s far from the only high school draftee who should populate the roster of Charleston. Second-rounder Cooper Flemming, supplemental second-round pick Dean Moss and third-rounder Taitn Gray will all be developing together, and they currently make up Nos. 28-30 on the Rays’ rankings. They attended strength camp in the fall together and each reported this spring with 10 pounds-plus of added muscle and strength. They’ve been playing in backfield Minor League Spring Training games as a set, giving the Rays the chance to really grow the next wave of big leaguers as one crop.

“It’s going to be really exciting to see that group of four play together,” said Ibach, who also pointed out that de Brun will join them as well. “They all formed like a fraternity from the Bridge League into instructional league. They all bring something a little different to the table. I think any of those three, we could be talking moving up a lot.”

Something new: The high school bats from 2025 Draft, part 2

That high school trio are moving around a bit defensively. Gray was drafted as a catcher, but he’s not going to see time behind the plate. He’ll mostly be playing first -- he made a very athletic play on an errant throw in a Minor League game recently -- with some talk of him eventually getting some outfield corner reps. With Pierce the primary shortstop. Flemming is playing a lot of third. But the biggest change is with Moss, an outfielder at IMG Academy in Florida. He’s played a lot of center, though some amateur scouts thought he might be best suited for a corner because of a lack of speed, which puts more pressure on the bat. The Rays are now seeing what he looks like … on the dirt.

“We drafted Moss because we really liked his bat, but he’s learning to play second base right now,” Ibach said. “He played a lot of outfield as an amateur, and you don’t typically see the outfield-to-infield conversion. He’s still going to play both, but the early returns on him at second base have been very positive with our infield group.”

Camp standout: Nathan Flewelling

He’s already No. 11 on the Top 30, so making him a breakout candidate might have been a harder sell. But the Rays think the industry still doesn’t know just how good he has the chance to be. He played last year at 18 years old and the fact that he did so in full-season ball after signing as a very raw Canadian high schooler in the third round of the 2024 Draft is impressive in and of itself. Don’t pay attention to his surface stats, either, because there was a lot more there under the hood offensively. He’s picked up where he left off in camp this year, making strides on both sides of the ball.

“There’s a lack of catching in the industry as a whole, everyone is looking for that,” Ibach said. “And he’s done a lot of interesting things at the plate. He can really manage an at-bat. He hits the ball hard. He’s a leader, great in the clubhouse. His catching has really come a long way. He’s a guy this year I think more people will know about him as he progresses through the system.”

Something to prove: Brayden Taylor

A year ago at this time, Taylor was the No. 3 prospect in the Rays' system, a 2023 draftee who banged out 20 homers in his first full season while touching Double-A and reaching the Top 100. Then he went out and hit just .173/.289/.286 in 108 games back with Montgomery and is no longer on the team’s Top 30. He hit the reset button in the Arizona Fall League a bit and looked more like himself in big league camp, even with a thumb fracture serving as a bit of a buzzkill.

“He’s highly motivated,” Ibach said. “Brayden struggled at the plate, probably for the first time in his career that he struggled to hit. Some of it was a matter of being unlucky, some of it was some swing changes he was trying to implement during the season. He went back and had a nice Fall League and had a nice reset there, and he’s had some really competitive at-bats here. I think he would tell you himself that he’s got a lot to prove; he fell down the rankings and I think he’s highly motivated to show he’s still a top prospect for us.”