Taylor Walls

Taylor Walls has more than 1,200 plate appearances in his major league career and has a paltry .188/.288/.293 triple-slash line to show for it. His redeeming qualities are a patient approach at the plate with good strikezone discipline and a strong stolen base success rate. That is where the compliments cease, because everything else about his offense is terrible, and even his defense is no longer showing the promise it once did. The loss of the franchise shortstop helped keep Walls playing in 2024 around his injuries, and the lack of a ready-made utility infielder in Tampa Bay is maybe what saves Walls from The Turk this spring training. Carson Williams is obviously the next man up, but he has seen all of four games in Triple-A, and the Rays are notorious for leaving their prospects in the system to fully bake. Walls will run when he reaches base, but therein lies the problem. Walls, despite a 12.1 percent career walk rate, has a career .288 OBP, and only Austin Hedges has a worse batting average. This is a backup catcher getting way too many at bats because the organization doesn't have another versatile option any better than him. One of Walls or Osleivis Basabe should make the club and one likely will get sent to Durham once camp breaks. Neither belongs on your fantasy roster. Read Past Outlooks