'Little Tony Gwynn' the prospect to watch for Rays

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The most unique prospect in baseball resides in the home clubhouse at Charlotte Sports Park this spring.

He’s arguably the fastest player in the sport. He led all full-season Minor Leaguers in batting average last year and stole 104 bases, even though everyone in the ballpark knew he was running. He has so little raw power that he’s only hit one home run in three professional seasons, and it was an inside-the-park job.

He makes coaches and executives raised in the age of analytics rave about his old-school skill-set. He has such elite bat control and a strong enough knack for making contact that he’s been dubbed “Little Tony Gwynn” by Marquis Grissom, the 17-year big leaguer who was a contemporary of the actual Tony Gwynn.

He is Chandler Simpson, and he’s unlike anyone else you’ll see this Spring Training.

“I'm very comfortable in it. I mean, credit to the Rays. They let me be who I am, honestly,” Simpson said. “They could have easily changed me, but they let me stay true to myself.”

Simpson (the Rays' No. 4 prospect) is in camp this spring with a rising core of position-player prospects, most of whom finished last season in Double-A Montgomery’s lineup. The 24-year-old outfielder is likely bound to break camp with Triple-A Durham, but he has the skills to reach the Majors this season.

Simpson said he entered his first big league camp looking to show he can help the Rays at some point later this year. He’s out to show what he’s proven in the Minors: that he can be a table-setter atop the lineup, a threat on the bases and a high-character teammate in the clubhouse.

“Just want to open eyes, turn heads the whole time,” he said. “Just from practice one, I just want to let them know that I'm different.”

Anyone who’s seen Simpson play in the Minors already has a pretty good feel for that. After hitting .293/.373/.345 with 94 stolen bases over 115 games in 2023, he batted .355/.410/.397 with 104 steals in 110 games between High-A Bowling Green and Double-A last year.

In 1,042 plate appearances over 233 Minor League games, Simpson has drawn 104 walks and struck out only 91 times. He puts the ball in play and lets what he calls his “God-given talent” take care of the rest.

“That bat-to-ball skill, to me, is just like Tony Gwynn. Unbelievable. Tough out. Great eye. Knows the strike zone. Going to battle you to death,” said Grissom, who works with Simpson and others in the Atlanta area every offseason. “Going to piss the pitchers off at the plate and from the mound. Not only that -- he’s got a chance to bring the speed game back to baseball.”

Fellow prospect Tre’ Morgan (No. 10), a natural contact hitter in his own right, said it’s “pretty special” to watch Simpson compete in the batter’s box. And it’s a delight to hit behind him in the lineup, because wary pitchers tend to fire fastballs whenever he’s on base.

“If he hits the ball on the ground, you might as well just eat it and call him safe,” prospect Xavier Isaac said. “It’s so fun to watch him run and play the game the right way. He knows his strengths, and he’s going to use them as much as he can. He beats people with it, and people hate it.”

But the Rays love it, and so does Simpson.

He detests striking out and loves the cat-and-mouse game that plays out with pitchers every time he’s on base. He studies video of some of baseball’s most prolific base-stealers. He learned first-hand from Billy Hamilton, one of the few players in recent memory who can relate to Simpson’s speed, when Hamilton spent time in the organization at the end of the 2023 season.

And he likes to play as often as he can, saying that he took the most pride last year in his consistency and his health. He felt as good stealing a base in his 115th game of the season as he did when swiping three in the season opener.

• Rays prospect becomes first player to steal 100 bases since 2012

Primarily a second baseman at Georgia Tech before being drafted in the second round in 2022, Simpson is still learning the nuances of the outfield -- the reads, the jumps, the routes. He’s probably an average defender at this point, with the speed to become a legitimate difference-maker in center if he improves with more reps.

“I'm still learning. I'm gonna be learning until the last day I play,” Simpson said. “Especially being new out there the last couple years … it's an everyday process, but we're working hard toward that.”

Simpson was just left off MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list due to ongoing concerns about his lack of power and his work-in-progress defense. He’ll continue to be challenged as he moves through the system. There will be doubts about how his profile will play in the Majors.

But if you want to appreciate who he is, not worry about what you think he should be, just watch him play.

“There's been some uncertainty. ‘How's he going to do at the next level? How he's going to do at this level?’” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Well, he's done it above-and-beyond at every level he's been at. So, it's more or less: Let him keep being himself.”