Pair of Biscuits join 20-20 club on back-to-back nights

The Rays earned the top spot in MLB Pipeline’s midseason farm system rankings, and Carson Williams and Brayden Taylor had a lot to do with that. Now, the Rays No. 1 and No. 3 prospects, respectively, also share a distinction: they’re both members of the 20/20 club.

Williams, MLB's No. 4 overall prospect, joined the club for the second straight season on Thursday, when he launched his 20th homer to go along with 33 steals in his first season at Double-A. Taylor, MLB's No. 47 overall prospect, cracked his 20th homer on Friday in Montgomery’s 6-2 loss to Pensacola at Blue Wahoos Stadium. He’d already swiped 29 bases between High-A Bowling Green and Montgomery, where he joined Williams on the left side of the infield in late July.

That’s the kind of power and speed package most teams would love to have one top prospect in their system possess. The Rays have two. Williams, the organization’s first-round pick in 2021, is only 21. Taylor was the organization’s first-round pick in 2023. He’s 22.

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“He’s a really good player,” Taylor said of Williams. “Even though he’s younger than me, it’s really fun to learn from him. He’s been in pro ball longer than me, so it’s really fun to play alongside him and learn from him."

Said Williams, of Taylor: “All I can say is he’s a fantastic ballplayer. He can really pick it and the swing speaks for itself. He has that sweet lefty swing.”

Williams and Taylor reached their milestones in different fashion. After reaching Double-A down the stretch last season as a 20-year-old, Williams opened 2024 as hot as possible. He was hitting .368 with power and speed through April, but slumped in the summer months. He’s turned it on down the stretch with a productive September and will enter the regular season’s final few days slashing .259/.355/.473 with 46 extra-base hits across 114 games. (The playoffs await the Biscuits as well, who won both the first and second-half Southern League South division crown.)

“I call this year 'The Year of the Mental,' with my peers and my teammates and coaches, because it’s been a battle at times,” Williams said. “Then you have the times that are going good. It’s all about keeping it as even as possible. I’m kind of learning the ropes of the mental side of baseball in that sense, and it’s come a long way this season.

“This year’s been really cool because I started off as hot as possible. I felt like I was the best hitter on the planet. Then we got to the middle part of the year and I can definitely say there were moments when I was struggling. Figuring out ways to get through those times and even to perform a little bit when you don’t feel good is super important in this game. The faster you can get back to being that guy who is confident, hitting the ball well and having good at-bats -- that's why big leaguers stay in the big leagues and have amazing careers, because they’re really good at that stuff.”

Taylor was known as a bat-first player who could do a little bit of everything offensively at Texas Christian, and he followed up a solid pro debut last year by pretty much doing that at Bowling Green to begin his first full season of pro ball. He slashed .269/.389/.513 with 14 homers and 26 steals in 84 games at High-A before a mid-season promotion, then took a little while to adjust to the high-level pitching at Double-A. But his homer Friday -- a leadoff shot -- was his sixth in 29 games with Montgomery, indicating that he’s finding his footing a bit.

With Williams and Taylor playing together at Double-A to close out the year, the next moves they make could be swift coming. As they keep developing side-by-side, it’s not unreasonable to imagine those moves maybe happening in tandem.

“I’ve definitely learned a lot, but the biggest thing for me is how to deal with a little more failure,” Taylor said. “All these pitchers are a lot better. It’s a lot of fun to compete against those kinds of guys every single night. And when you get to have some success against them, it’s really fun.”