Where Rays' Top 30 prospects are starting season
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With the 2018 season getting started, here's a look at where the Rays' Top 30 prospects are starting the season:
1. Brent Honeywell Jr. (MLB No. 18), RHP -- Out for season
- Willy Adames (MLB No. 22), SS/2B -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Brendan McKay (MLB No. 25), 1B/LHP -- Bowling Green Hot Rods (A)
- Jesus Sanchez (MLB No. 57), OF -- Charlotte Stone Crabs (A Adv)
- Jake Bauers (MLB No. 64), OF/1B -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Christian Arroyo (MLB No. 82), 3B/SS -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Lucius Fox, SS -- Charlotte Stone Crabs (A Adv)
- Wander Franco, SS -- Extended spring training
- Garrett Whitley, OF -- Out for season
- Justin Williams, OF -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Joshua Lowe, OF -- Charlotte Stone Crabs (A Adv)
- Nick Solak, 2B -- Montgomery Biscuits (AA)
- Joe McCarthy, OF/1B -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Austin Franklin, RHP -- Bowling Green Hot Rods (A)
- Brandon Lowe, 2B -- Montgomery Biscuits (AA)
- Anthony Banda, LHP -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Michael Mercado, RHP -- Extended spring training
- Tobias Myers, RHP -- Bowling Green Hot Rods (A)
- Vidal Brujan, 2B -- Bowling Green Hot Rods (A)
- Ronaldo Hernandez, C -- Bowling Green Hot Rods (A)
- Yonny Chirinos, RHP -- Tampa Bay Rays (MLB)
- Genesis Cabrera, LHP -- Montgomery Biscuits (AA)
- Drew Strotman, RHP -- Bowling Green Hot Rods (A)
- Nick Ciuffo, C -- Suspended
- Ryan Boldt, OF -- Montgomery Biscuits (AA)
- Ryan Yarbrough, LHP -- Tampa Bay Rays (MLB)
- Chih-Wei Hu, RHP -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Resly Linares, LHP -- Bowling Green Hot Rods (A)
- Diego Castillo, RHP -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
- Jaime Schultz, RHP -- Durham Bulls (AAA)
• Rays prospect coverage | Rays Top 30 prospects stats
Team to watch
Triple-A Durham will be plenty exciting even with top prospect Honeywell out for the season following Tommy John surgery. Back for another year are Top 100 prospects Adames and Bauers, and they'll be joined by on-base machine McCarthy and offseason acquisition Arroyo. Banda, acquired in a three-team deal with the Yankees and D-backs, is expected to headline the Bulls' rotation, while Hu, Castillo and Schultz give the club a dynamic, late-inning bullpen trio.
Also of interest will be Class A Bowling Green, which will feature the same starting rotation that helped lead Class A Short Season Hudson Valley to a New York-Penn League title last season -- a group that includes McKay, Franklin, Myers, Strotman and Linares. On the other side of the ball, the Hot Rods will have two of the better defensive players in the system in Brujan and Hernandez.
Where baseball's top prospects are starting the 2018 season
Teams on MiLB.TV
Durham Bulls (AAA)
Montgomery Biscuits (AA)
Hudson Valley Renegades (A Short Season)
New faces
The Rays added a Top 100 prospect during the offseason in Arroyo, whom they acquired in a four-player package from the Giants in the December deal for Evan Longoria. The aforementioned three-team deal in February, meanwhile, netted the club Banda, and he, like Arroyo, comes with big league experience and therefore club control. The Rays acquired Solak in the same deal, continuing an offseason trend in which they targeted Minor League infielders with bat-first profiles.
On the shelf
Honeywell was likely to join the Rays' rotation early this year before a forearm injury suffered during a camp bullpen session in late February required Tommy John surgery, thus wiping out his entire 2018 season. Garrett Whitley, the team's first-round Draft pick in '15, also will miss the entire season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn right labrum, and Ciuffo will be sidelined for the first 50 games in the wake of his second positive test for a drug of abuse in February.