PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The Rays farm system was just named the best in baseball entering the 2020 season. And for many within the organization, Spring Training is the first time that they¡¯re getting a look at some of the newly acquired players that helped vault Tampa Bay into the No. 1 spot.

? Rays Top 30 Prospects list

At the top of that list is Xavier Edwards, whom the Rays acquired with Hunter Renfroe from the Padres in December in exchange for Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth.

¡°Our scouts talked very highly about Xavier going back to the Draft, and most of our staff who saw him play in the Midwest League last year came away very impressed with how he plays the game,¡± said Rays director of Minor League operations Jeff McLerran. ¡°Especially at a young age, to have such an advanced approach and the contact skills and athleticism he has -- it all jumps off the page.¡±

? Q&A with Joe Ryan

Selected by San Diego with the No. 38 overall pick in the 2018 Draft, Edwards, a 20-year-old switch-hitter, batted .322 with 34 steals and finished tied for third in the Minors in hits (162) while climbing from Class A Fort Wayne to Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore in his first full season before joining the Rays in the offseason deal.

¡°He was in one of our mini-camps in January, so our guys got to see him in person, up close, getting to interact with him,¡± McLerran said. ¡°They think pretty highly of him, of the future he has with us. He fits in really well with the group of high-end infielders we have throughout the system, and the hope is that he will push some of those guys and they¡¯ll push him.¡±

And while Edwards saw more time at second base than shortstop last summer in the Padres¡¯ system, Tampa Bay, an organization that prides itself of developing versatile prospects, plans to deploy him at both positions going forward.

¡°Even if he is a second baseman,¡± said McLerran about the Rays¡¯ No. 4 prospect, ¡°we think there are benefits for him to know what it¡¯s like to play shortstop and have that viewpoint. We see that as beneficial for his development, no matter where he ends up defensively, so we¡¯ll continue to bounce him around on the dirt and see where the year takes him.¡±

Randy Arozarena also joined the Rays in an offseason trade, coming over from the Cardinals with Jos¨¦ Mart¨ªnez in the January trade that sent 2017 first-rounder Matt Liberatore to St. Louis.

Unlike Edwards, though, the 25-year-old joins the Rays with prior big league experience after he batted .300 over parts of 19 games with the Cardinals in 2019. That performance followed a breakout campaign in the Minors in which he set career highs in average (.344), home runs (15) and slugging (.571) between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis.

¡°Our scouts obviously really liked him and felt he was another guy who could add value in a bunch of different ways,¡± said McLerran. ¡°He¡¯s made some jumps at the plate over the past year, but he also provides value defensively and on the basepaths.¡±

The Rays¡¯ No. 17 prospect certainly has made the most of the new opportunity so far this spring. Through 10 games, he¡¯s batting .533/.708/.733 with eight runs scored, six RBIs, nine walks and zero strikeouts.

¡°He¡¯s a guy who could fit with our group for a while,¡± noted McLerran.

Prospect to watch in 2021
Though the Rays¡¯ system features an abundance of young, high-ceiling talent on both sides of the ball, no player made a bigger jump on the team¡¯s Top 30 Prospects list this year than right-hander Taj Bradley.

Bradley entered his senior year at Redan High (Stone Mountain, Ga.) more noted as an outfielder, but emerged as a better prospect on the mound, showing the type of athleticism and physical projection that teams covet in the Draft. One of the youngest players in the 2018 Draft -- he didn¡¯t turn 18 until March 2019 -- Bradley was expected to honor his South Carolina commitment until the Rays made him their fifth-round pick and offered the teenage right-hander an above-slot signing bonus.

¡°Not only was he really young, but he wasn¡¯t a big pitching prospect on the showcase circuit and wasn¡¯t getting coached up at different facilities, so he was very unpolished when he came to us in terms of mechanics and knowledge of pitching,¡± said McLerran about the Rays¡¯ No. 20 prospect.

After being eased into pro ball after signing, Bradley began to offer a glimpse of his potential last summer in the Rookie-level Appalachian League, posting a 3.18 ERA with 57 strikeouts and 19 walks across 51 innings.

¡°He¡¯s really started to hit that point in the learning curve where we¡¯re hopeful he¡¯s ready to take off,¡± noted McLerran. ¡°The athleticism is there, the tools are there; now it¡¯s just a matter of him learning how to use and harness those and learn what it¡¯s like to be on a pro schedule.

¡°For anybody who has a limited background, it¡¯s all about getting those consistent mechanics over and over again, and that was lacking when we got him out of the Draft. Now, when it comes together and he¡¯s able to repeat his delivery, it¡¯s really good stuff.¡±

Camp standout
Seth Johnson was light-hitting shortstop who totaled just six innings on the mound in two college seasons at Louisburg (N.C.) JC, before he transferred to Campbell and blossomed as a pitching prospect, showing two potential plus pitches from a picturesque delivery. The Rays made Johnson the highest-drafted player in program history in June, when they took him with the No. 40 overall pick, and the right-hander hasn¡¯t stopped impressing since signing.

After opening his career with five scoreless starts in the Gulf Coast League, Johnson finished his pro debut as a member of Rookie-level Princeton¡¯s rotation. This offseason, the 21-year-old has been a mainstay at the organization¡¯s Spring Training facility in Florida.

¡°He reported early, came to January mini-camp and just decided to stick around. He¡¯s been throwing with our guys for a month or so now,¡± McLerran said. ¡°Anybody who has seen him throw is amazed at his limited track record as a pitcher because his mechanics are so clean and he repeats them so well. He just looks like a guy who¡¯s been pitching all his life.¡±

Despite their excitement, McLerran and the rest of the Rays player development staff are very aware of Johnson¡¯s limited college workload and therefore will handle their No. 19 prospect with kids gloves early in his career.

¡°We¡¯re going to have to be cautious with him because he¡¯s so new to pitching -- because we want to make sure he¡¯ll be able to pitch into August and September,¡± he said.

Something to prove
It wasn¡¯t all that long ago that Lucius Fox, who signed with the Giants for $6 million out of the Bahamas in July 2015, was viewed as one of the top prospects in Tampa Bay¡¯s system. But after ranking as high as No. 8 on the Rays Top 30 in 2017, when they acquired him from the Giants for Matt Moore at the Trade Deadline, the 22-year-old switch-hitter now checks in at No. 25 after a 2019 season that saw him produce a .221/.331/.327 line between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham.

¡°We still think highly of Lucius and that he has a real future with us,¡± McLerran said of Fox, whom the Rays added to their 40-man roster in November. ¡°I think the under-the-surface things last year were better than what the traditional stat line showed. There were some unlucky things that happened to him offensively that we think will regress positively this year and get him in a better spot.¡±

But the reality is that Fox, a .221 hitter with 33 extra-base hits across 146 games in the upper Minors since the start of the 2018, may never make much of an impact at the plate. He has, however, continued to offer value with his baserunning, swiping at least 25 bags in four straight seasons, including a career-high 39 steals in 2019, and through his above-average defense on the infield.

The latter components are why Tampa Bay added Fox to its 40-man roster, and the club is now trying to maximize his value by increasing his defensive versatility.

¡°We¡¯re giving him time in the outfield this spring to hopefully give him more chances to stay in the lineup and help impact our club,¡± noted McLerran.

¡°The athleticism is still there, so we think he can be an above-average defender in the outfield, and obviously that athleticism still plays well on the infield. We got him more time at third base and second last year, just exploring more avenues for him to help our club.¡±