Minor League Baseball

Tampa Bay Rays' Shortstop Named One of Top Prospects to Watch on Triple-A Opening Day

The Triple-A season begins on Friday and Carson Williams has been identified as a prospect to pay attention to at the outset of the year.
Brady Farkas|
Tampa Bay Rays infielder Carson Williams (80) looks on before the game against the New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field on March 6.
Tampa Bay Rays infielder Carson Williams (80) looks on before the game against the New York Yankees at George M. Steinbrenner Field on March 6. | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays open up the regular season on Friday against the Colorado Rockies. The Rays are starting a day later than the rest of the league in order to get Steinbrenner Field ready for their arrival.

The team is playing there, at the Single-A home of the New York Yankees, because of damage sustained by Tropicana Field durring October's Hurricane Milton.

As the Rays take the field for the first time in 2025 on Friday, so too will the Durham Bulls, the team's Triple-A affiliate. That means we'll get a chance to see Rays' prospect Carson Williams, who was identified as a player to watch by MLB Pipeline.

The 21-year-old shortstop is a Major League-ready defender with his range, instincts and plus-plus arm strength, and his power-speed combo could make him a quick standout. But he’ll need to prove he can keep strikeouts in check -- after hovering around a 30 percent K rate for much of his career -- if he’s going to break through to The Show in the first half.

Williams is the No. 1 prospect in the organization, per Baseball America. He was a first-round pick of the Rays in 2021 but could have a hard time cracking the 40-man roster because of Tampa's infield depth. Furthermore, the team signed Ha-seong Kim, who is expected to be healthy in May.

Williams had 20 homers, 69 RBIs and 33 stolen bases a season ago, making him an all-around threat on the field.

The Bulls open up the season at the Norfolk Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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