Rays' Carson Williams: Goes yard in major-league debut
Rotowire
Williams went 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI and an additional run scored in Friday's 10-6 win over the Cardinals.
Making his big-league debut, Williams went deep in the seventh inning to give the Rays a 9-6 lead. As long as Ha-Seong Kim (back) is on the 10-day injured list, Williams should be able to handle everyday reps as Tampa Bay's shortstop. Williams slashed a pedestrian .213/.318/.447 with 55 RBI but did launch 23 homers and steal 22 bases over 451 plate appearances with Triple-A Durham in 2025, so fantasy managers in deeper settings can consider adding the rookie infielder for his power and speed potential.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Making major-league debut
Rotowire
Williams is starting at shortstop and batting seventh against the Cardinals on Friday.
Williams should see regular playing time at shortstop while Ha-Seong Kim (back) is on the 10-day injured list. Williams has had his fair share of struggles at the plate in Triple-A with a .213 batting average across 451 plate appearances, but he's also displayed his speed and power with five triples, 22 stolen bases, 23 homers and 55 RBI.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Receiving promotion to big leagues
Rotowire
The Rays will call up Williams from Triple-A Durham on Thursday, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.
Ha-Seong Kim (back) is headed to the 10-day injured list, and Williams should man shortstop for the Rays regularly while Kim is out. Williams has not had a great 2025 season with Durham, slashing just .213/.318/.447 with a 34.1 percent strikeout rate. He has, however, socked 23 home runs and stolen 22 bases, so there is a tempting combination of power and speed if Williams is able to make enough contact.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Assigned to Triple-A
Rotowire
Williams will begin the season at Triple-A Durham, MLB.com reports.
Williams, 21, slashed .256/.353/.469 with 20 home runs and 33 stolen bases at Double-A Montgomery in 2024 and will move up to Durham to start this season. The shortstop has a chance to debut in 2025 if things go well in the International League.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Returns from week-long absence
Rotowire
Williams (hand) returned to action Tuesday for Double-A Montgomery and has gone 1-for-7 with two walks, a run and an RBI while starting at shortstop in the club's last two contests.
Williams missed a week of action with a hand injury but was never placed on Montgomery's 7-day injured list. The 20-year-old shortstop prospect is hitting .289/.374/.537 with 10 home runs and 15 stolen bases across 230 plate appearances in the Southern League this season.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Dealing with hand injury
Rotowire
Williams is considered day-to-day after being hit by a pitch in the hand during Wednesday's game with Double-A Montgomery, MLB.com reports.
X-rays and an MRI came back clean, so it appears as if Williams has avoided serious injury. That's positive news, as he's had an excellent season with Montgomery, maintaining a .928 OPS with 10 home runs and 15 stolen bases across 49 games.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Stock way up at Double-A
Rotowire
Williams is slashing .336/.410/.571 with five home runs, nine steals, a 24.6 percent strikeout rate and a 72.3 percent contact rate in 29 games for Double-A Montgomery.
Williams has plus power, above-average speed and a chance to develop into a 70-grade defender at shortstop, it's just a question of how good his hit tool will be. While Williams' .432 BABIP is obviously inflating his line somewhat, his start to the season is encouraging, as he had a 31.8 percent strikeout rate and a contact rate below 65 percent last year. The Rays are getting good real-life shortstop play from Jose Caballero (0.8 fWAR), and Williams isn't on the 40-man roster, so he may still spend most, or all the season in the upper levels of the minors, but his dynasty stock is trending steeply up.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Falls off after hot start
Rotowire
Williams is hitting .255/.347/.489 with 13 home runs, 21 steals and 41:125 BB:K in 82 games for Single-A Charleston.
Yep, that's 125 strikeouts in 82 games for Williams -- good for an ugly 32.9 percent strikeout rate. He came out of the gate on fire, putting up a .323 average and 1.018 OPS through his first 33 games of the year, but in the 50 games since, he's put up a .208 batting average and .710 OPS. The stolen-base production has fallen off, too -- he's gone 0-for-2 over his last 16 games. Williams still boasts an intriguing power-speed blend, and he's considered a good bet to stick at shortstop, so there's still plenty to dream on here, but as the Rays (and fantasy managers) have seen with the travails of Josh Lowe this year, a subpar hit tool can prevent the other tools from showing through regularly.
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Rays' Carson Williams: Enticing results in Single-A
Rotowire
Williams is hitting .323/.418/.600 with four homers, 12 steals, 1 RBI and 25 runs across 33 games for Single-A Charleston.
That 1.018 OPS is the good news; the bad news is that Williams has a 33.3 percent strikeout rate. He's also drawing walks at a decent clip (13.1 percent), but he'll need to cut down on those swing-and-miss issues to have any hope of hitting for decent average in the big leagues. Nonetheless, it's been an incredible start to the year for Williams, who's shown a ton of extra-base ability with 10 doubles and seven triples to accompany his four long balls. Considering his exploits on the bases, it seems like evaluators may have underestimated his speed. He should be a big riser on the midseason prospect lists.
