The Rays selected top prospects Jacob Melton again Carson Williams to Triple-A Durham to start the season, the team announced. Melton entered the season with two option years remaining. Williams has a full slate of three-year options.
Both players are making their major league debuts in 2025 – Melton and the Astros. He came to Tampa Bay in a three-way trade Brandon Lowe again Mason Montgomery Pittsburgh again Mike Burrows to Houston. A strong showing this spring could have put Melton in a position to win a spot on the Opening Day roster, but he struggled to a .161/.212/.387 showing with twelve strikeouts in 33 plate appearances.
The numbers from a rocky spring have little bearing on Melton’s status as a potential contributor in the coming years. He enters this season ranked 70th on Baseball America’s ranking of the game’s top 100 prospects. The 25-year-old was a second-round pick in 2022 who saw his stock decline during the 2024 season but rebuilt a large fan base around him with a terrific minor league run in 2025.
Melton missed nearly two months last year with a sprained ankle but hit .286/.389/.556 with a whopping 14.7% walk rate in Triple-A before being called up to the majors. Major league pitching has been a challenge for the Oregon native, as Melton has been adjusted to hit .157/.234/.186 in a small sample of 78 major league plate appearances. He still played good defense and went 7-for-9 on stolen base attempts. However, last year’s tough MLB and shaky spring showings suggest he could use a little more seasoning in the minors.
At some point, Melton should take a look at this season. Tampa Bay’s outfield is not well-rounded by the stars. A left-handed player Chandler Simpson he is the fastest player in baseball but has low power on the scale and needs to improve his outfield if he is going to be a center fielder. Cedric Mullins he signed a one-year deal in free agency and will be hoping to bounce back after a bad 2025 season. Jake Fraley was not tendered by the Rays and re-signed to a cheap one-year deal. Johnny DeLuca, Ryan Vilade again Justin-Henry Malloy give the other Rays corresponding to the right in that outer slate in the left hand, but none of the three is good enough to give himself.
Williams, on the other hand, was dropped despite strong results this spring. He went 6-for-22 with a pair of doubles and a stolen base (although two other attempts were unsuccessful). Like Melton, he’s a prospect who struggled mightily during his MLB debut last summer. The 2021 first round pick appeared in 32 games and made 106 plate appearances but hit just .172/.219/.354. He hit five homers but struck out 41.5% of his plate appearances.
Williams pitched through the minors and minors, but was a below-average hitter in Triple-A and his minor league sample. He hit .213/.318/.447 with a 34% slugging percentage in Durham last year. Hitting is always an issue for the 22-year-old, but he has above-average speed, power and a combination glove at shortstop. Williams tends to draw a lot of walks, so the hope will be that he can be a three-hit slugger who plays plus shortstop. That would make him easy and lock him down like a matchup with the Rays, but there’s still work to be done.
For now, that seems likely Taylor’s Walls will open the season in short order. Commercial acquisition Ben Williamson expected to make another appearance there (over time at third and second base).
Another recently cut feature for the Rays was the veteran righty Jake Woodfordwho was not an invitee but was reassigned to minor league camp two days ago. The 29-year-old right-hander had a great game, throwing 7 1/3 innings and holding opponents to four runs on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts and a good 45% ground ball rate.
MLBTR learned that Woodford has an upward movement clause in his contract on Friday. Effectively, that clause will make him available to all 29 other clubs. If another team is willing to add Woodford to the 40-man roster, the Rays must select him from their 40-man roster or waive him to a club willing to do so. With Woodford out of the minor leagues, he will need a team willing to carry him to the big leagues to move up.
No. 39th overall pick back in the 2015 draft, Woodford pitched in parts of six major league seasons between the Cardinals, White Sox, Pirates and D-backs. He has a career 5.10 ERA with a very low 14.9% strikeout rate but strong walk and groundball rates (7.6% and 45%, respectively).
Woodford has pitched both out of the bullpen and out of the rotation. He has totaled at least 21 major league innings in each season through 2020. The right-hander posted a 6.44 ERA in 36 innings with Arizona in 2025 and spent the rest of the season in Triple-A with the Yankees and Cubs, compiling a 4.55 earned run average while averaging 1 in 3 innings. A club that has had an injury-plagued rotation this spring and is looking to bring in some bullpen length could be taking a closer look when this stretch begins on Friday.
