Deep system has Rays thinking big at Trade Deadline

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander was making his weekly radio appearance on Tampa Bay’s WDAE station when he delivered a monologue that he described as “word salad” and, perhaps, a “non-answer.”

But Neander’s response to host Tom Krasniqi’s question was telling, no matter his self-evaluation. Approaching a Trade Deadline at which they are expected to be aggressive in pursuit of ways to upgrade their American League-leading team, do the Rays have any “untouchable” prospects?

“If the goal is to win a World Series and there are players out there that help you do that in a way … we owe it to ourselves to be open-minded to anything and everything,” Neander said on WDAE. “We do have some players that we think have the potential to be special. We’ve got to wait a little bit for them to continue their development, and you want to be very, very careful when you make those decisions.

“We operate, just broadly, with a very open mind, and will consider just about anything.”

For whatever Neander’s answer lacked in specifics, he made up for in big-picture perspective. The Rays will, indeed, consider just about anything. They’ll scout, evaluate, analyze and discuss anyone who could help them. Even though many of their most successful moves have come in the margins, they think big.

This is the same team that, as has been reported, considered giving up Junior Caminero and a highly ranked Carson Williams for a couple of months of Shohei Ohtani before the 2023 Deadline. That is why they are repeatedly linked to this Deadline’s big-ticket players, including Tigers ace Tarik Skubal.

Because, really, if a prospect with the enormous upside of a young Caminero wasn’t off-limits when baseball’s best player was on the table, how can you label anyone “untouchable”? But it’s a sliding scale, based on the quality of the return and the impact it would have on winning the franchise’s first World Series championship, now or in the future.

That brings us back to today and, more importantly, this next week leading up to the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline.

The Rays are atop the AL standings, in a position where they have historically acted with a more aggressive mindset. They have legitimate difference-making stars in their lineup, in their rotation and at the back of their bullpen, but they also have room to improve and clear areas of concern, especially if you’re projecting toward a potential postseason series.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay has a terrific farm system that was most recently enriched by shortstop Grady Emerson, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s Draft. It is a remarkably deep group, and the top-end talent has risen this season thanks to big leaps from outfielder Theo Gillen (No. 1), catchers Nathan Flewelling (No. 2) and Caden Bodine (No. 3) and 2025 Draft picks Cooper Flemming (No. 4) and Taitn Gray (No. 7).

This combination makes the Rays even more intriguing as they evaluate their options over the next week. They have shown a willingness to consider just about anything, and they have the sheer volume of prospect capital to do just about anything.

One area to keep an especially close eye on as the Trade Deadline approaches? The Rays’ depth in the upper levels of the Minor Leagues.

Some of their most exciting prospects are in the lower levels of the Minors, or started there before earning promotions, but Triple-A Durham and Double-A Montgomery offer players who could benefit clubs looking for more proven, near-ready options. That may be a larger field than usual this year, as the tightly packed standings have led to fewer obvious “sellers” and fewer long-term rebuilds taking hold.

There’s an especially large group of prospects coalescing in Triple-A and Double-A right as they are nearing eligibility for the Rule 5 Draft, meaning they would become available for any team to select this winter if not added to Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster -- or dealt away beforehand.

That list includes, among others, a trio of talented starters in Triple-A -- right-handers Brody Hopkins (No. 5), Michael Forret (No. 8) and Ty Johnson (No. 10) -- and essentially the entire Double-A rotation: right-handers Santiago Suarez (No. 13), TJ Nichols (No. 19), Gary Gill Hill (No. 26), Jackson Baumeister (No. 28) and Garrett Edwards.

It’s a similar story on the position-player front. The Rays will, at some point, have to make decisions on first basemen Tre’ Morgan (No. 29), Xavier Isaac (No. 16) and Will Simpson, infielder Brayden Taylor (No. 17) and outfielder Homer Bush Jr. (No. 30), not to mention Williams -- their former top prospect -- already on the 40-man roster, among many others.

Ultimately, it’s a good problem for the Rays to have: upper-level depth behind a strong Major League roster, with more waves of talent on the way.

It just makes for some tough calls this time of year, when they must determine who’s “untouchable” -- or under which circumstances they may not be.

“I think that we have to [be open],” Neander said on WDAE. “We can’t close any doors before even considering who’s knocking and what’s going on.”