MLB Draft Deep Dive: Tampa Bay Rays

In order to satisfy my innate curiosity as it pertains to the MLB Draft, I have taken a comprehensive look at the 2018 draft for each of the 30 MLB organizations. But I also wanted to get an idea of what each of the teams had done for the 20 years prior so that is included as a prelude to the 2018 information. I'll be looking first at each team in each division, starting with the National League East, and then I'll follow up with a an overall look at both the historical draft results to date and the early 2018 results.

My goal is to get a better idea of the big picture as to how the systems compare in terms of draft results, as well as how a good or bad draft class affects a system, the overall impact of the draft on the baseball talent pool and the circuitous ways in which draft picks are used to bolster a system for which they may never even play. This project is just a first step. I intend to expand on this information over time (including a later revisit of the 2018 class and the addition of the 2019 class next offseason) and I will share my findings as I do so.

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST

TAMPA BAY RAYS

Historical Draft Results from 1998 through 2017 (TO DATE)
Drafted 951 | Signed 596 | Pitchers Signed 314 | Position Players Signed 282
Total WAR 399.8
Total Players to MLB 82

Note: The following players are listed at the position at which they were originally drafted.

1998 | 4 to MLB | WAR 29.9 | High WAR 20.4, 3B Aubrey Huff, 5th rd
1999 | 6 to MLB | WAR 70.9 | High WAR 39.2, OF Carl Crawford, 2nd rd
2000 | 5 to MLB | WAR 41.4 | High WAR 30.6, RHP James Shields, 16th rd
2001 | 6 to MLB | WAR 0.8 | High WAR 2.8, OF Jonny Gomes, 18th rd
2002 | 6 to MLB | WAR 30.5 | High WAR 16.5, SS Melvin Upton Jr., 1st rd
2003 | 5 to MLB | WAR 12.2 | High WAR 10.9, C John Jaso, 12th rd
2004 | 7 to MLB | WAR 23.0 | High WAR 13.0, RHP Wade Davis, 3rd rd
2005 | 1 to MLB | WAR 12.2 | High WAR 12.2, RHP Jeremy Hellickson, 4th rd
2006 | 7 to MLB | WAR 77.8 | High WAR 51.9, 3B Evan Longoria, 1st rd
2007 | 3 to MLB | WAR 49.2 | High WAR 37.9, LHP David Price, 1st rd
2008 | 2 to MLB | WAR 5.4 | High WAR 5.2, SS Tim Beckham, 1st rd
2009 | 2 to MLB | WAR 0.2 | High WAR 0.6, RHP Andrew Bellatti, 12th rd
2010 | 7 to MLB | WAR 30.5 | High WAR 24.0, OF Kevin Kiermaier, 31st rd
2011 | 7 to MLB | WAR 8.8 | High WAR 9.4, LHP Blake Snell, 1st rd
2012 | 6 to MLB | WAR 5.8 | High WAR 2.0, OF Andrew Toles, 3rd rd
2013 | 6 to MLB | WAR 0.5 | High WAR 1.3, RHP Ryne Stanek, 1st rd
2014 | 1 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR 0.00, OF Braxton Lee, 12th rd
2015 | 1 to MLB | WAR 0.7 | High WAR 0.7, 2B Brandon Lowe, 3rd rd
2016 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A
2017 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A

The highest WAR to date, both total and individual, is from 2006. The bulk of the productivity comes from 3B Evan Longoria (1st round, 51.9 WAR), but OF Desmond Jennings (10th round, 13.4 WAR) and RHP Alex Cobb (4th round, 11.9 WAR) also contributed double-digit WAR for that draft class. Jennings's entire MLB career (7 seasons) was played for the Rays; he last played in 2016. Cobb played for the Rays in six of his seven seasons before signing with the Orioles as a free agent in 2018. But, obviously, the big story from this draft class is Evan Longoria. A three-time All-Star, Longoria was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2008 and went on to win three Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger in his 10 seasons with the Rays. Longoria was traded to the Giants in December 2017 for four players, including two minor leaguers. Notably, Longoria's first season with the Giants in 2018 was the least productive offensive year of his career thus far.

2018 DRAFT
43 Drafted | 35 Signed | 20 Pitchers | 15 Position Players
27 College | 27 Signed | 17 Pitchers | 10 Position Players
5 JC/CC | 3 Signed | 1 Pitcher | 2 Position Players
11 HS/NS | 5 Signed | 2 Pitchers | 3 Position Players

Notable: The Rays received one additional draft pick for Competitive Balance (Round B). They were also awarded two first round compensatory picks, one for losing free agent RHP Alex Cobb to the Orioles and one for failure to sign 2017 first round supplemental draft pick RHP Drew Rasmussen. Tampa Bay signed their first 23 draft picks with the top holdout being 21st round HS RHP Kerry Wright.

PITCHERS
All of the 20 pitchers signed (14 RHP, 6 LHP) logged at least some playing time. One player was promoted beyond the Short Season A* level (to Full Season A). Two of the pitchers debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Rays, both in the Top 10.

Top Prospects

🔟 LHP Matthew Liberatore, 1st round, Mountain Ridge HS (AZ), Rk
32.2 IP | 9 G / 9 GS | 1.38 ERA | 1.041 WHIP | 13 BB : 37 K

🔟 LHP Shane McClanahan, 1st round, University of South Florida, Rk
7 IP | 4 G / 4 GS | 0.00 ERA | 0.571 WHIP | 1 BB : 13 K

🔟 Top 10 Prospect

Noteworthy Debut

RHP Simon Rosenblum-Larson, 19h round, Harvard University, A
38.2 IP | 18 G / 0 GS | 1.16 ERA | 0.724 WHIP | 9 BB : 62 K | 8 Saves

RHP/OF Tanner Dodson (S/R), 2nd round, University of California, Berkeley, SSA
25 IP | 9 G / 0 GS | 1.44 ERA | 0.680 WHIP | 5 BB : 25 K
58 G | .273/.344/.369/.712 | 20 BB : 34 K
(Dodson is included in the Draft totals as a RHP, but could easily be included as an OF as well.)

In total, the Rays 2018 Draft pitchers combined for a 3.07 ERA and a 1.179 WHIP over 563.1 innings as compared to the 3.67 ERA and 1.299 WHIP (average of 376.2 innings per affiliate) compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

POSITION PLAYERS
All of the 15 position players signed (2 1B, 2 2B, 3B, SS, 6 OF, 3 C) logged at least some playing time. (Note: One additional OF can be added to the totals breakdown to account for two-way player Tanner Dodson.) One player was promoted beyond the Short Season A* level, to Advanced A. Two players debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Rays.

Top Prospects

OF Nick Schnell (L/R), 1st round, Roncalli HS (IN), Rk
19 G | .239/.378/.373/.751 | 14 BB : 23 K

2B Tyler Frank (R/R), 2nd round, Florida Atlantic University, SSA
51 G | .288/.425/.412/.837 | 33 BB : 28 K

Noteworthy Debut

1B Russ Olive (L/L), 29th round, University of Massachusetts Lowell, A+
58 G | .317/.410/.436/.845 | 32 BB : 53 K

OF Jordan Qsar (L/R), 25th round, Pepperdine University, SSA
62 G | .289/.422/.573/.996 | 50 BB : 80 K | 12 2B / 3 3B / 14 HR

In total, the Rays 2018 Draft position players combined to hit .265/.368/.388/.756 as compared to .261/.349/.386/.735 batting line compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

*Notes on players include the highest level achieved for the 2018 season using the following abbreviations:
Rk = Rookie
SSA = Short Season A
A = Full Season A
A+ = Full Season A Advanced

GENERAL NOTES: Information was obtained from Baseball-Reference and the MLB Draft History site. The occasional discrepancy in historical information was resolved to the best of my ability by delving into the player information available on B-R. On the historical information, the player position in the totals reflects the position at which the player was drafted (and not any subsequent change of position). On the 2018 information, the player position reflects the primary position played in 2018 for all players who were signed and the position at which the player was drafted for those who did not sign. Prospect listings on MLB Pipeline were as of early January and may not reflect any subsequent changes to that site.

PREVIOUSLY

NL EAST
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
NL East 2018 Draft Summary

NL CENTRAL
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
NL Central 2018 Draft Summary

NL WEST
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
NL West 2018 Draft Summary

AL EAST
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees

COMING NEXT
Toronto Blue Jays