Carson

Williams

Williams takes over as Tampa Bay’s starting shortstop with Taylor Walls (oblique) hitting the injured list. The 22-year-old top prospect is an excellent defender and boasts enough power/speed combo potential to be intriguing fantasy-wise. Strikeouts remain the biggest obstacle to sustained relevance for Williams as he struck out a staggering 41.5 percent of the time in 32 games as a rookie last year. He’s unlikely to solve the contact issues that have followed him throughout his rise to the majors, but even a small step forward would make a difference.

It’s possible that this is a re-aggravation of Walls’ initial oblique injury early in Spring Training. Carson Williams is taking Walls’ spot in the lineup today and is a plausible fill-in to start the season if the Rays don’t “consider outside options” per Topkin. Williams hit .172/.219/.354 in his 106 at-bat cup of coffee in the 2025 season and, should he be the Opening Day starter, is probably only a consideration in AL-only leagues despite his top prospect status.

Williams and Melton are viewed as long-term building blocks up the middle for Tampa Bay. The pair of top prospects will open the season back in the upper minors with veterans Taylor Walls and Cedric Mullins starting at shortstop and center field, respectively. Williams is a phenomenal defender but his power/speed combo is muted somewhat by persistent contact issues that have followed him throughout his ascent. Melton came over from the Astros as part of the Brandon Lowe three-team deal in the offseason and shouldn’t have to wait too long for an everyday opportunity with the Rays.

Williams isn’t really excelling in terms of results this spring, but he’s smacking the ball. This was the second straight game in which he’s played that he’s had the top EV of the contest. Today, it was a 110.2-mph groundout. On Thursday, it was a 109.5-mph groundout. He also had a 106.3-mph single in his previous game Tuesday. Williams is probably going to open 2026 in Triple-A if Taylor Walls proves healthy, but if he can cut down on the strikeouts some and maybe hit .250 or so for Durham, he should earn another look.

Walls was scratched from the lineup on Sunday with oblique tightness, but it doesn’t appear to be a major issue. Cash said that he hopes to have Walls back in the lineup by the end of the week. While Walls is not a fantasy-friendly player, the Rays love his defense, which always makes him a threat to steal at-bats from guys like 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.