Rays' Farm System Receives Shockingly Poor Ranking Despite Great Depth

Where did the Tampa Bay Rays' farm system recently come in ranked?

Apr 3, 2023; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; A general view of a Tampa Bay Rays hat and glove during the seventh inning of the game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. | Scott Taetsch-Imagn Images

With the offseason coming to a close soon, the Tampa Bay Rays have had an interesting winter so far. However, some of the moves that they made should be viewed as good ones for the future. 

Despite a desire to snap their two-year playoff drought, the Rays are a team that is going to have a hard time keeping up in the American League East. This is a division that has spent a ton of money in free agency, with all four other teams improving. Furthermore, with three teams coming out of the division last year and one of them winning the AL pennant, they have some stiff competition. 

Even though the division is strong, that doesn’t mean that Tampa Bay can’t be scrappy and compete. This is a team that does have some great young talent, like Junior Caminero, and they hope that their farm system will be able to promote some more this coming season. 

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN recently ranked all baseball farm systems by monetary value, based on the future value tier of prospects. For the Rays, despite having four prospects in his Top 100 rankings, the overall group ranked 12th. 

Shockingly Low Ranking

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Carson Williams | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Seeing Tampa Bay not being in the Top 10 for overall rankings is pretty shocking to see, based on the number of Top 100 prospects that they have and the overall depth of the organization. However, what limited them is that Carson Williams is considered to be the best prospect for the team, and he was ranked 39th. 

Furthermore, while Williams received a strong ranking, he was the only prospect in the Top 80 for Tampa Bay. Depth appears to be the greatest strength of the system, and that could be a good thing long-term. 

Compared to last year, there is a slight drop in these rankings, with the Rays coming in 5th. While having top-end prospects is obviously important, depth for a farm system is key as well. Having depth can provide a team with a constant influx of talent, or it can also be used to make trades. 

As a team that is always trying to think about the future, having a Top 10 farm system is certainly a goal. However, while the ranking of 12th is a bit surprising, it isn’t a terrible place to be. There is still a lot of talent on the way, and that should be exciting for the future.