The Tampa Bay Rays announce their Arizona Fall League roster: An Overview

The Arizona Fall League rosters have been released this week with a lot of intriguing prospects on each team. There are six teams full of prospects from Major League teams that will play starting October 6th. I’ll be writing an article and making Twitter posts about each team’s roster. This will cover the prospects from the Tampa Bay Rays who are on the Mesa Solar Sox this fall. The team will consist of players from the Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Miami Marlins, and New York Yankees as well.

Tampa Bay Rays:

Jackson Baumeister RHP: Acquired during last year's trade deadline from the Orioles in exchange for Zach Eflin, Baumeister was known in Baltimore as a starter with great stuff but one who struggled with command walking 14% of batters in his eighteen starts in the Orioles High-A but his walk percentage shrunk after moving to the Rays organization to 4.8% in his couple starts at the end of the season. This season he’s spent most of the season dealing with a shoulder injury but has made fifteen starts in AA. His walk rate ended up in the middle at 9.6% but his CSW% dropped from 30.8% last season between both teams to 25.6% this season. He’s getting way less called strikes than he did in High-A and hitters are making 6% more contact. This has led to his strikeout rate also dropping from 32.7% last season to only 19.5% this season. This has been the reason for his ERA jump too from 2.53 last season to 4.62 this year. Baumeister was drafted for his athleticism and fastball that sits in the mid 90s and had 20 inches of induced vertical break. Last season after arriving to the Rays he threw his mid 80s cutter more for strikes than usual and dropped his curveball down to his last pitch but it works well when he’s able to locate his fastball to the top of the zone. He also has a changeup that’s able to miss bats at times. The problem for him is it seemed he wasn’t able to get many whiffs with that arsenal this year. It’ll be interesting to get Statcast data this fall to see what the Rays are doing with his pitches. 

Jadon Bercovich RHP: After going undrafted in the 2024 draft out of San Diego State the Rays picked up Bercovich made his Rays organization debut in the Complex League this year after recovering from an injury was promoted to Low-A. In 17 games in Low-A he had a 2.91 ERA and 1.91 FIP. He has strikeout stuff with a 33.3% strikeout rate and was able to throw strikes with only a 6.7% walk rate. There is no public Statcast data from his Rays appearances but using his data from his senior season last year he has a fastball that sits in the low 90s that he’s able to command for a strike very well. He also has a slider that had a 62% whiff rate and a changeup that had a 47% whiff rate. From his Low-A outings it seems the Rays are focusing more on his changeup that was making some hitters look silly. I’m excited to see his data this fall. 

Andrew Lindsey RHP: After being drafted in the 5th round out of Tennessee by the Marlins in the 2023 draft Lindsey was traded that offseason to Tampa Bay for Vidal Brujan and Calvin Faucher. He’s spent both of his two years in the Rays organization injured, only pitching 8 innings last season and 22.1 so far this season. He’s struggled throughout those innings with a 6.45 ERA but has a 3.66 FIP. He’s been struggling to get whiffs in Low-A only having a 9.9% whiff rate and 16.2% strikeout rate. He has a sinker that sits in the mid 90s and tops out at 98 mph. He also has an upper 80s slider that has a lot of spin and also throws a curveball at times. He could continue to be a starter like he was at Tennessee but with next season being the last before Lindsey is Rule 5 eligible I would guess the Rays transition him into a reliever next season.

Jonathan Russell RHP: Signed out of Cuba in 2023 Russell’s first state side season last year was shaky in 31.1 innings in the Complex League he had a 6.89 ERA with a low strikeout rate and high walk rate. This season though after spending his first three games in the Complex League he was promoted to Low-A Charleston and excelled with a 2.17 ERA and 2.15 FIP. He struck out 30.5% of batters and walked 7.3%. Not much is known about Russell as he’s never had any public data so I’m not sure what happened for him to jump that high this year with strikeouts but he was able to throw more strikes. It’s an intriguing arm in Arizona this fall. 

Brayden Taylor INF: The 2023 19th overall pick for the Rays out of TCU, Taylor had a disastrous 2025 season only slashing .173/.289/.286 with a 77 wRC+ in AA. His strikeout problems continued with a 27.7% rate and his power which had carried his OPS and wRC+ in the past was down with only 8 home runs and 24 extra base hits total coming off a year where he had 55 extra base hits. Taylor never had a ton of raw power but his swing from the left side was able to produce good lift and pull which helped him launch balls out of right field. He doesn’t have good enough contact skills to be able to sustain no power as he showed this season. He was a shortstop prospect but has only played 5 games there this season mostly playing third and second base lowering his value. He has decent speed and is able to pick stolen base spots at times with 17 this year. Taylor will have to figure something out with his swing if he wants to move to AAA or the majors and be anything other than a bench utility player. 

Mason Auer RHP: A former top prospect for the Rays ranking #8 from MLB Pipeline in 2023 has had a very interesting path. He broke out in 2022 where he slashed .290/.372/.487 between Low-A and High-A and become a player people looked at as a future star but struggled to hit in AA first in 2023 where he slashed .205/.292/.348 and again in 2024 with a .190/.264/.325 slash line. So instead of giving up on him the Rays have moved him into a pitching role this season. He’s made six appearances out of the bullpen for Low-A Charleston and hasn’t looked great giving 8 earned runs through 4.2 innings. He’s also been wild walking 10 batters with only 4 strikeouts. It’s an interesting experiment as he’s said to have a great fastball shape with good potential velocity and a high slider but with no public data I have nothing to back that up. One of the most interesting prospects for any team this fall.

Brailer Guerrero RF: A top international prospect in the 2023 class missed most of his first season with a torn labrum in the Dominican Summer League and spent his first season in the states dominating the Complex League slashing .330/.452/.466 for a 154 wRC+ at just 18 years old before he suffered a shoulder injury and missed the rest of the season. He again dealt with a knee injury in 2025 only able to play 50 games in Low-A but again showed his special bat slashing .251/.341/.403 for a 119 wRC+. He has big time raw power with multiple 110 mph exit velocity hits. He’s struggled with contact striking out 29.1% of the time at Low-A this season and only making contact on 64.1% of swings. He also had a swinging strike percentage of 16.4%. He sort of makes up for it with a patient approach only swinging at 45.8% of pitches and walking 11.4% of the time. He’s only 19 and with a 6’1” 215 lbs frame hitting from the left side he has a ton of time and size to still develop and could easily become a top 100 prospect one day. 

Aidan Smith CF: After being acquired at the 2024 deadline from the Mariners for Randy Arozarena, Smith has had a solid season in High-A, he slashed .237/.331/.388 for a 113 wRC+. He added a lot of strength last offseason onto his 6’2” frame and will look to build on that again this offseason. He still is struggling to make contact with a 31.2% strikeout rate but was able to show more raw power. He has great speed stealing 41 bases each of the last two years. He’s been alright in center field but has the potential to be very good out there but has played every outfield position last year just in case. Smith is a very toolsy outfielder at only 20 years old and has a very high ceiling. 

Thank you for reading for shorter breakdowns check out my Twitter @drew-durstock. Each day I'll release a new team's prospect breakdown.