Rays Prospect Weekly: Bodine Earns His Flowers, Kinney Heats Up at Montgomery
By Grace Turner ·
Rays Prospect Weekly covers the last 7 days of action for the Rays farm system.
Caden Bodine Wins Player of the Week
Caden Bodine (AA, C, Rank: 8) earned South Atlantic League Player of the Week recognition this week, and the underlying numbers explain why the honor was well-deserved. In 24 plate appearances at Montgomery, he went 7-for-24 with two home runs, six RBI, and three walks against three strikeouts, a performance that reflects everything his profile has been doing all season long. The contact rate is the detail that keeps standing out: Bodine runs an 89.1% contact rate on a 54.2% swing rate, meaning he is aggressive but almost never misses. Two home runs in a week is meaningful production for a catcher graded at 45 power, and the swing-without-whiffing combination makes the numbers sustainable rather than streaky.
The full 2026 picture makes the weekly line feel like a representative sample rather than an outlier. Across all three levels this season, Bodine is slashing .340/.410/.507 with 14 home runs, 23 doubles, and 89 RBI in 478 plate appearances, with just 28 strikeouts in nearly 500 trips to the plate. Over his last 30 days at Double-A, he is hitting .299/.370/.460 with four home runs and 18 RBI in 100 plate appearances. For a catcher who grades with a 55 field tool and advanced receiving skills, having a bat that can carry this level of production at Montgomery at age 22 is a meaningful development. The 45 power grade may be the most interesting number to revisit at season's end: the home run total is already at 14, and the damage in the zone has been consistent enough to raise the question of whether there is more there than the current projection gives him credit for.
Coming Alive: Cooper Kinney's Montgomery Renaissance
There are two versions of Cooper Kinney (AA, 2B, Rank: 21) on the 2026 ledger, and they do not look like the same hitter. At Triple-A Durham earlier in the season, he slashed .229/.296/.346 across 49 games, a line that matched the concerns around his profile: elevated strikeout rate, modest power output, and a contact game that struggled against upper-level pitching. Since returning to Double-A Montgomery, the switch has been flipped. This week he went 9-for-23 with a homer, seven RBI, and three walks, and over his last 30 days he is slashing .333/.393/.560 with four home runs and 24 RBI across 89 plate appearances. That is the version of Kinney that made him interesting to begin with: a 55 hit tool with a line-drive approach, a left-handed bat that finds the barrel, and enough present strength to push the ball into the gaps and over the fence with regularity.
The season-to-date combined line of .275/.348/.448 with 12 home runs in 382 plate appearances sits in a reasonable range for a bat-first second baseman who has battled health and level-jumping this year. The strikeout count is still the loudest caveat, sitting at 107 for the year, and the 67.1% contact rate on a 53.4% swing rate confirms the swing-and-miss risk that comes with his aggressive approach. When the pitch recognition is dialed in, though, the left-handed bat produces real damage without selling out; his Double-A numbers this year are .327/.404/.564, which represents a fully actualized version of what his scouting profile projects. At 23, with a shoulder history that has already cost him development time, the question is less about whether the bat can play and more about whether he can sustain it as pitchers adjust and whether the body cooperates heading into the offseason.
Quick Hits
Taitn Gray (A, C, Rank: 17) · had a standout week, collecting 8 hits with four doubles, a homer, and 7 RBI across 20 plate appearances. Per outside reporting, he has been working back from elbow surgery on a rehab assignment at the complex, and this output suggests the return to Charleston is close. On the season at Low-A, he is hitting .294/.385/.466 with seven home runs and 42 RBI in 263 plate appearances, a strong line for a 19-year-old switch-hitting catcher with a 60 power grade.
Gregory Barrios (AA, SS, Rank: 36) · went 10-for-21 with a homer and an RBI, his most productive week of the season by hit count. The contact has been real over the last month: he is slashing .330/.352/.420 over his last 30 days at Montgomery with an 86% contact rate. For a glove-first profile whose carrying tools are a 60 field grade and 55 arm, a stretch like this is a bonus rather than a baseline. The full-season line of .257/.295/.329 reflects the more realistic offensive picture, but Barrios has added 36 stolen bases and counting, and the defense keeps him valuable regardless of what the bat does in a given week.
Slater de Brun (A, OF, Rank: 10) · reached base seven times in 24 plate appearances, going 7-for-24 with three walks and three hit-by-pitches. The power is not there yet for a profile graded at 40, but de Brun has spent the season drawing walks at an exceptional clip: he is running a .463 OBP at Low-A with a 37.3% swing rate and 89% contact rate over his last 30 days. A 70-grade runner with a 60 hit projection and plus center-field defense does not need to hit for power to be a serious prospect, and the on-base process is already advanced for a 19-year-old.
Andreimi Antunez (A, SS, Rank: 23) · drove in 5 runs across 23 plate appearances with a double, triple, and home run. He is hitting .267/.323/.465 over his last 30 days at Charleston with three home runs and 12 RBI in 93 plate appearances. The power output is outrunning a 30 power grade for a 19-year-old who just made his full-season debut, which is worth tracking even if the swing-and-miss rate (seven strikeouts this week) raises flags about whether higher-level pitching will expose him.
Cooper Flemming (A, SS, Rank: 15) · collected 5 hits with two doubles, a homer, and 4 RBI in 24 plate appearances, continuing a strong final stretch of the Low-A season. On the year at Charleston, he is slashing .299/.385/.449 with 10 home runs, 26 doubles, and 68 RBI through 469 plate appearances, a standout full-season debut from a 20-year-old who has moved up 24 spots in prospect rankings since the spring. The 50 hit and 45 power grades look like floors based on the current production.
Brendan Summerhill (A+, OF, Rank: 11) · returned from the 7-day injured list on August 19 and picked up right where he left off, going 4-for-11 with 3 RBI across 15 plate appearances in his first week back. Summerhill has been excellent since his promotion to Bowling Green, hitting .381/.440/.524 in 25 plate appearances at A+. A 60 hit tool and 60 speed in center field are the carrying tools, and the walk rate and contact profile have both looked the part at every level he has visited this year.
Dean Moss (A, OF, Rank: 24) · went 6-for-21 with a double, a homer, and 2 RBI. He has been one of Charleston's steadier bats over the past month, slashing .312/.372/.429 over his last 30 days with two home runs and 14 RBI in 86 plate appearances. His season average sits at .248 at Low-A, but the walk rate and approach have been consistent with his profile as a 50-hit, 50-power corner outfielder who works counts and makes contact without selling out.
Jackson Baumeister (AA, RHP, Rank: 32) · turned in his cleanest outing in recent memory, going 6 IP while allowing 1 ER, walking 1, and striking out 7. He needed it: over his last 30 days he carries an 8.69 ERA with a 42.3% strike rate and home runs piling up (four in 19.2 innings), a rough stretch for a 60-grade fastball that has been catching too much of the plate. The stuff is real, but the walk rate (45 this year) and homer exposure remain the central obstacle between his current outcome and the back-end starter ceiling his profile supports.
Grady Emerson (A, SS, Rank: 2) · was assigned to Charleston on August 18 for his first promotion to full-season ball. Through 9 plate appearances at Low-A, the results have been modest so far, but the jump from the complex to Low-A at this stage is the expected path for a prospect of his caliber. No need to read anything into nine plate appearances; the development timeline is intact.