{"id":666606,"date":"2026-04-06T15:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666606\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:57:20","slug":"rays-finalize-expected-decision-on-341-ops-top-prospect-ahead-of-cubs-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666606\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays finalize expected decision on .341 OPS top prospect ahead of Cubs series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rays finalize expected decision on .341 OPS top prospect ahead of Cubs series<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> are making a change in the infield before their series against the Chicago Cubs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Shortstop Taylor Walls began the season on the injured list with a right oblique strain<\/a>. The slick fielder needed a replacement, and Tampa Bay turned to top prospect Carson Williams.<\/p>\n

Williams, 22, made it into seven games with the Rays, but will head back to the minors on Monday. According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>, Walls was activated from the injured list, and Williams is being optioned to Triple-A.<\/p>\n

In 25 trips to the plate, Williams managed just three hits and one walk, striking out nine times. Further development at the plate<\/a> will be key for the former first-round draft pick.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Jo Adell robbed 3 home runs in the same game<\/a><\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, the Rays get back one of the better defensive shortstops in baseball in Walls, whose +17 defensive runs saved in 2025 make up for a mediocre .220\/.280\/.319 slash line with just four home runs.<\/p>\n

Walls does provide speed on the basepaths, though, with 14 or more stolen bases in each of the last three seasons, including a career high 22 in 2023.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rays finalize expected decision on .341 OPS top prospect ahead of Cubs series originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,17802,138,24,4245,161,2540,2179,14552,4,9723,2550,68,5521,1966],"class_list":{"0":"post-666606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carson-williams","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-injured-list","15":"tag-jo-adell","16":"tag-marc-topkin","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-oblique-strain","19":"tag-tampa-bay","20":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","21":"tag-taylor-walls","22":"tag-the-rays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116358587762531297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}