As spring training games draw near, there are a multitude of positions that are up in the air for the Tampa Bay Rays, with plenty of competition expected in camp and throughout the beginning of the season.
The first (and perhaps most important) of these positions is the shortstop spot, as the Rays come into the season with a few options expected. None are particularly inspiring or exciting, but some have enough upside to make for a fun storyline to monitor.
Sep 4, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Carson Williams (77) fields the ball against the Cleveland Guardians in the second inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Candidates for the Rays Shortstop Position in 2026
Carson Williams
To start with, the guy with the highest upside at the position, and their top prospect for the past few seasons. This would be the most fun and high-upside move after Carson Williams made a little cameo to end the 2025 season.
Williams struggled quite a bit in most of the usual and expected for a player of his talents. He showed off some of the electric bat speed that has him high on some prospect rankings, but he also displayed the swing-and-miss that scares some folks into thinking he might not ever be able to be even an average MLB hitter.
But, with his defensive acumen that won him awards at the minor league level and gave him a 70-grade fielding mark by MLB’s official prospect site, he can still be a Gold Glove-caliber player with the occasional show of pop.
That’s a lot more than you can say for the other Rays shortstop candidates. Plus, Williams is such a young player (he turns 23 in June) that it’d be foolish to write him off based on such a small sample size of 106 plate appearances in the major leagues.
He has the baserunning ability to be a real problem out there when he does reach base, and he really turned things around after a downright putrid start in Triple-A in the 2025 season.
There’s reason to believe he can do the same in the majors, bringing some of that signature pop and defensive ability that made him such a highly touted prospect in the first place.
WELCOME TO THE BIGS, CARSON WILLIAMS 🤯
He DEMOLISHES his 1st career home run in his Major League debut 👏 pic.twitter.com/ghJy9DGCsF
— MLB (@MLB) August 23, 2025
Taylor Walls
The most unexciting but expected pick, Taylor Walls, is who he is at this point in his career.
Defensively, he’s one of the best shortstops in baseball, posting a DRS mark of 17 at the premium shortstop position and racking up a 2.6 bWAR almost exclusively on the strength of that outstanding glove work.
At the plate, well, he’s a bit less exciting. His 66 wRC+ was atrocious, as it has been for quite some time now. He doesn’t get on base, he hits the ball incredibly soft, and he doesn’t get base hits.
His career slash line of .195/.286/.298 is a perfect indicator of his inability to be anything more than an 0-for-4 on most nights, and there’s no reason to expect him to deviate from his previous 1,560 plate appearances of production.
However, the Rays love his defense and are willing to put up with having a black hole of no offense in the lineup.
Whether that’s wise, or if they can afford to do so with no offensive upside, combined with such uncertainty arriving from pretty much every other position except the corners and DH, remains to be seen. But it’s safe to say the Rays feel comfortable with Walls getting significant playing time. His being the Rays’ starting shortstop is the most likely outcome heading into the 2026 season.
Ben Williamson
Now for the biggest wild card, Ben Williamson, who joined Tampa Bay from the Seattle Mariners in the three-team Brendan Donovan deal.
Williamson offers a bit of a middle ground between Walls and Williams (a whole lot of Ws in this shortstop room) in that he still has a solid defensive background, and while not as high as Walls or Williams, he has a safer offensive floor than Williams, while a bit of a higher upside than Walls.
He’s very contact-oriented, posting very good contact rates in Triple-A with little to no power and fewer walks than one would like to see out of someone who won’t crack double-digit home runs. Think Jake Mangum, but an infielder.
Williamson was very good defensively at third last year and can be, at worst, a late-inning substitution for Junior Caminero, or a very capable backup for the young star.
It remains to be seen just how good Williamson can be at short, as he’s only played 14 games there throughout his professional career (all in Double-A or lower), but there’s a chance he could impress enough to earn some real playing time.
The Rays tend to trade with a purpose, and Williamson’s status on the 40-man roster likely means that they at least want to see what they can do with him.
Main Photo Credit: Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images