Carson

Williams

The Rays love Walls, so it’s not a lock that Williams will get the best of him, even though Williams is one of the team’s top prospects. The 22-year-old hit just .172/.219/.354 with a 41.5 percent strikeout rate in 32 games with Tampa Bay at the end of the season. He’ll need to show much more than that before the Rays turn their back on Walls.

Williams has performed pretty much as expected offensively through 24 games, hitting .186/.230/.400 over 75 plate appearances. At least according to the metrics, his defense at shortstop hasn’t been quite as strong as expected, but one imagines that will get better. The Rays will probably be content to let him battle it out with Taylor Walls for the shortstop job next spring.

The rookie took Parker Messick deep for his second home run of the season to go along with nine RBI. However, Williams is also slashing .209/.261/.395 in 14 games with an 18/3 K/BB ratio, which makes it hard to roster him in most fantasy formats.

The 22-year-old rookie shortstop plated Christopher Morel with an RBI single in the fourth inning that extended the Rays’ lead to 2-0. He then drove in another run with a sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning that made it a 4-0 ballgame. Williams has had a tough start to his big league career, hitting just .229/.289/.371 with one homer, eight RBI, one stolen base and a 13/3 K/BB ratio in his first 39 plate appearances.

Williams is batting .261 (6-for-23) with one homer, five RBI and one steals in six games since arriving in the big leagues last week. The 22-year-old’s contact issues have carried over to the highest level — albeit in an extremely small sample size — as he’s whiffed nine times during that span with seven of those coming in his last three contests alone. He’s going to strike out more than a quarter of the time, but he also offers enough power/speed combo upside to be an interesting fantasy option for the next few seasons.

Williams was animated as he rounded the bases after taking Ryan Fernandez deep in the seventh inning. The 22-year-old shortstop had 23 home runs in the minor leagues and his power was on display yet again. Williams game figures to include a lot of swing and miss going forward, but the rookie has the potential to be the Rays’ shortstop of the future and a solid fantasy asset.

The 22-year-old top prospect is not in the Rays’ lineup for Thursday’s tilt against the Cardinals, so his big-league debut will have to wait another day. Williams batted .213/.318/.447 with 23 homers, 55 RBI and 22 stolen bases in 451 plate appearances at Triple-A Durham this season. He’s a legitimate power and speed threat, which makes him very intriguing from a fantasy perspective, just don’t expect him to hit for a positive batting average just yet. He also sported a troublesome 34.1 percent strikeout rate at the Triple-A level.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports the Rays are placing Ha-Seong Kim (back) on the 10-day injured list ahead of Thursday’s series opener against the Cardinals. That paves the way for Williams, an elite defender at shortstop whose bat remains a question mark. The 22-year-old top prospect’s plate discipline has stalled at Triple-A, where he’s struck out at a staggering 34 percent clip over 111 games. Still, the power/speed combo is real — 23 homers and 22 steals this season — giving him some intrigue in deeper mixed leagues. Just don’t expect much help in batting average, which caps his immediate fantasy ceiling.

Williams is now up to 12 home runs and 36 RBI on the season, but is hitting just .215 with a .747 OPS. It’s also interesting that he has been playing some third base of late. It most likely has to do with Ha-Seong Kim rehabbing at Triple-A, but Junior Caminero is a below-average defensive third baseman and could shift to first base when Yandy Diaz departs in free agency, which means third base could potentially be a path forward for Williams as well.

The Rays’ top prospect is the 21st-ranked prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. He’s struggled for much of the season, hitting .197/.296/.394 in 57 games at Triple-A with nine home runs, 23 RBI, 37 runs scored, and 11 steals. There’s a chance he could be the team’s starting shortstop in 2026, but we’re unlikely to see him in the big leagues this year.