Prior to the start of each season, the Draysbay community takes part in an excercise in which the top prospects in the Tampa Bay Rays system are ranked by popular vote.
This season, the Draysbay community
ranked the top 25 prospects in the Rays system with several others receiving votes but just falling shy of making the cut.
With the 2025 season officially over, we can now look back and see how each prospect performed and whether their stock has improved, remained the same, or fallen over past several months.
An important note:
This is not a re-ranking of the Rays top prospects but a review of the prospects in the order that they were ranked entering the season.
Also, I will not be featuring players no longer within the Rays organization.
#19: Cooper Kinney
What Danny wrote entering the season:
2024 finally brought the performance that was expected from the 2021 34th overall pick’s pedigree. Promoted despite a mild year at Low-A in 2023 (after missing all of 2022 to a labrum injury), Kinney was all about the infield (53 G at 2B, 17 at 3B, 9 at 1B, and 24 at DH) but notably no appearances at short stop. He re-injured his shoulder, ending his season early. Cooper’s calling card is hard contact, but he has the barrel control and mind to work his counts at a major league level. Here’s to hoping he can stay healthy.
Entering the year, Cooper Kinney had showcased that he could be a well above average offensive force at the plate, it was only his health holding him back. The former 34th overall selection in the 2021 draft has slowly made his way though the system and finally reached Double-A for the 2025 campaign and early on, it appeared that it might be a brief stay as he enjoyed a scorching month of April.
Then Kinney’s power slipped over the next two months and his production waned. On July 6th, Kinney hit his 13th and final HR of the season, from that point on he hit .196/.270/.254, registering a 60 wRC+ over 211 PA.
Minor League Stats by Month:
April: .338/.393/.662 | 6 HR | 0 SB | 23.8 K% | 8.3 BB% | 207 wRC+ | 84 PA
May: .250/.270/.396 | 3 HR | 0 SB | 25.0 K% | 2.0 BB% | 94 wRC+ | 100 PA
June: .260/.305/.403 | 3 HR | 0 SB | 31.7 K% | 6.1 BB% | 110 wRC+ | 82 PA
July: .169/.231/.265 | 1 HR | 0 SB | 25.3 K% | 7.7 BB% | 48 wRC+ | 91 PA
Aug: .222/.309/.259 | 0 HR | 0 SB | 21.3 K% | 9.6 BB% | 75 wRC+ | 94 PA
Sep: .205/.300/.318 | 0 HR | 0 SB | 22.0 K% | 12.0 BB% | 87 wRC+ | 50 PA
2025 SEASON NUMBERS:
AA: .242/.299/.386 | 13 HR | 0 SB | 25.0 K% | 7.2 BB% | 103 wRC+ | 501 PA
Kinney is Rule 5 eligible so there is a chance that a team will take him on for the 2026 campaign. However, should Kinney remain with the Rays he figures to either start the year in Double-A or Triple-A depending on whether the Rays believe he can overcome whatever obstacle led to his prolonged slump to end the 2025 campaign.
So is Kinney’s stock improving, the same, or falling?
