Team Outlook

This is a loaded farm system. There’s an old joke that when the Rays ask for prospects, you just hang up and keep whoever they ask for. Why is that? Well, of their top 10 over half of them did not start in the Rays organization. With all of the 55’s/50’s on this list, that is a litany of potential big league contributors. There’s a solid mix of bats and arms, too. Brody Hopkins and Anderson Brito are just two examples of potential impact arms. There are immediate contributors for the Rays lineup in Carson Williams and Jacob Melton. The recent trade of Shane Baz brought in some exciting names headlined by Michael Forret and Slater de Brun. No matter how you slice it, the Rays organization has a history of developing players and a large number of high level potential big leaguers to work on developing. In a tough division, they’ll need to lean on their development find themselves back on top of it like they were in 2021.

About Our Top 20 Lists

Prospects Live, led by its evaluating team & Director of Scouting Rhys White, is proud to begin rolling out its annual offseason system reports. The team combines industry feedback, our live looks, film, and available data to compile each org. We believe this effort has enabled us to present you, the reader, with our best possible view of the prospects in the organization.

We have constructed this list using the Overall Future Potential (OFP) scale. There is no perfect equation for ranking prospects or assigning value to them, but we believe this method is the best possible approach. Every prospect on this list has been graded based on the tried and true 20-80 scouting scale. An 80 is the highest tool and OFP grade on the scale, reserved for MVP-caliber players or tools. Conversely, a 20 is reserved for non-prospects (NPs). A 50 OFP falls in the middle, indicating our evaluators deem this player a future average major league player. Below the 50 OFP tier are the 45s and 40s, comprising a large majority of players on each list. These are specific-role players, such as platoon hitters, utility players, or low-leverage relievers. Above the 50 OFP tier are the 55s and 60s. A 55 represents a future above-average player, and a 60 OFP designation is reserved for future All-Star caliber players.

In addition to the tool grades and OFP, we will also include a ‘Risk’ associated with each prospect. We use this to better communicate to you, the reader, whether a grade is more aggressive or conservative in nature. The evaluation team has worked hard to apply both the grades and risk components to better illustrate how each individual prospect stacks up in their respective system and in the baseball ecosystem.

Evaluators: Brandon Tew, Chris O’Day, Daniel Barrand, Grant Carver, Jacob Maxwell, Matt Seese, Mitch Stachnik, Nate Jones, Trevor Hooth

Find all the Top 20 Lists here:

2026 Team Prospect Lists – Prospects Live

Top 20 Prospects at a Glance

1. Brody Hopkins, RHP – 55 OFP
2. Carson Williams, SS – 55 OFP
3. Jacob Melton, OF – 50 OFP
4. Anderson Brito, RHP – 50 OFP
5. Theo Gillen, OF – 50 OFP
6. T.J. Nichols, RHP – 50 OFP
7. Santiago Suarez, RHP – 50 OFP
8. Michael Forret, RHP – 50 OFP
9. Daniel Pierce, SS – 50 OFP
10. Brendan Summerhill, OF – 50 OFP
11. Slater de Brun, OF – 50 OFP
12. Ty Johnson, RHP – 50 OFP
13. Jadher Areinamo, 2B – 45 OFP
14. Aidan Smith, OF – 45 OFP
15. Nathan Flewelling, C – 45 OFP
16. Trevor Harrison, RHP – 45 OFP
17. Jose Urbina, RHP – 45 OFP
18. Brailer Guerrero, OF – 45 OFP
19. Cooper Flemming, SS – 45 OFP
20. Cooper Kinney, 2B – 45 OFP

Scouting Reports

Find Scouting Reports and Tool Grades in each toggle section

Expand All Reports

1. Brody Hopkins, RHP – 55 OFP

HT: 6-4 WT: 200 H/T: R/R
Highest Level: AA
ETA: 2027

OFP: 55

Risk: Moderate

Fastball: 60 – (94-97 T99 mph)
Cutter: 55 – (89-92 mph)
Curveball: 60 – (84-88 mph)
Slider: 60 – (85-88 mph)
Changeup: 45 – (88-91 mph)
Command: 45

Scouting Report

Brody Hopkins is a massive right-hander with eye-catching breaking ball shapes and significant velocity. He hasn’t been pitching full-time for long and is still scratching the surface of his upside. The delivery is simple with a sidestep-and-go operation into the drift, landing heel-to-toe with a slightly open front foot. He stays direct down the mound and throws from a three-quarters release out of a long arm swing. He lit up Double-A for stretches with 25 starts and 116 innings in 2025 after throwing 115 in 2024. The four-seam fastball flashes plus with its shape, and there’s room for added juice to match the profile better, potentially settling more consistently in the 96-99 mph range. Hopkins isn’t afraid to challenge hitters, but he doesn’t live in the zone enough to consistently leverage his secondaries. There’s also a two-seamer mixed in to work counts as well. Overall, command is fringy to average, and he still looks like a pitcher who may end up slightly sub-par in that area, though the athleticism suggests it could click soon. The breaking balls are gaudy. Hopkins can really spin it, creating significant movement while holding firm velocity. The sweeper is a plus pitch in the high-80s, bending away from right-handed hitters for awkward swings and misses, even though he doesn’t feature it heavily. The hard cutter is his go-to strike pitch when the fastball isn’t there, sitting a tick higher in velocity with enough movement to miss barrels and play with some platoon neutrality. His curveball is a big death ball shape, thrown 84-88 mph with depth and bite, and it generates the most whiffs in the arsenal. Getting ahead in counts to be able to throw it is key. The changeup trails the rest of the mix, but with his arm speed, there’s a path to an average offering. Even the current fringy version can function as a wrinkle off his glove-side shapes. Hopkins looks like a mid-rotation arm right now, with a bursting upside driven by athleticism and plus breaking balls. There’s still risk he doesn’t find the zone enough, but if he can use the fastball or cutter early to reach those secondaries, it will raise the profile to another tier. He should stick in a big-league rotation for Tampa in the near future with the trajectory he’s on. – Brandon Tew

2. Carson Williams, SS – 55 OFP

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