PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — They’re gone now, their lockers empty and their promise still untapped.

With opening day barely a week away, most of the phenoms and prospects have seen their big-league uniforms shoved in the back of the closet. Tomorrow may belong to them in Tampa Bay, but today they’re toiling for the Durham Bulls or Montgomery Biscuits.

Brayden Taylor was the first to go on March 7. Days later, it was Xavier Isaac. Now, in the past few days, Tre’ Morgan, Theo Gillen, Carson Williams and Chandler Simpson were all reassigned to minor-league camp. That’s a half-dozen players whose baseball cards have stock market-like potential.

Fangraphs, Baseball America, MLB.com and ESPN all have Tampa Bay among the top five farm systems in the game. It’s not quite the high-end talent of Wander Franco and Junior Caminero in recent years, but the abundance of potential big-leaguers is impressive.

Were they everything the Rays expected this spring?

“Probably a little bit better,” manager Kevin Cash said.

There was no expectation that any of Tampa Bay’s uber prospects would make the team out of spring training, but it would not be shocking to see Morgan, Williams or Simpson at Steinbrenner Field at some point in 2025.

“We were talking about it towards the end of the season last year and, you know, we’re mentally ready,” said Morgan, a third-round pick out of LSU in 2023. “We’re just waiting. Waiting on the phone call to get up there and showcase what we can do to help the team win.”

It’s a dangerous game, predicting where prospects might end up. And that goes in both directions. Five years ago, Brendan McKay, Vidal Brujan and Brent Honeywell were among Baseball America’s top five prospects for Tampa Bay. And Shane McClanahan, Josh Lowe and Randy Arozarena were not.

Whether any of these prospects reach the majors in 2025 has as much to do with what happens in Tampa Bay as it does their performance in Durham. For instance, if Christoper Morel or Jonny DeLuca struggle to hit, you might see Simpson a little sooner than anticipated. Between his speed and bat-to-ball skills, Simpson could provide a different look in the Rays lineup.

“Chandler is unique. You just don’t see that skill set as frequently as maybe you did 25 years ago,” Cash said. “He can really change a game with the contact and the speed.”

Morgan, a first baseman/outfielder, has less pro experience than the rest but hit a combined .324 with an .891 OPS while climbing the ladder from Charleston (low A) to Bowling Green (high A) to Montgomery (Double A) last season.

“(Baseball operations president) Erik (Neander) visited him with the Double-A team last year and he was like, ‘Man, wait till you see how this guy competes in the box,’ and we saw it this spring,” Cash said. “He had about three or four games early on where it wasn’t coming. He was pissed, like, ‘This is not me.’ Then he got it back. Didn’t lose confidence. That was cool. You see a guy get mad but not lose confidence because he knows the type of hitter he is.”

Williams, the No. 9 prospect in baseball according to MLB.com, may have a harder short-term path with shortstops Ha-Seong Kim, Taylor Walls and Jose Caballero all expected to make the team. It could take either an injury or a trade to see him before September.

“We’re not going to make any rush decisions,” Cash said. “But I hope that we’re sitting there from the Major League point of view saying, ‘When is this guy going to get here, because he can help us.’”

Williams, Morgan and Simpson were all in Montgomery for at least part of last season, along with Isaac (first-round pick in 2022), Taylor (first-round pick in 2023) and Dominic Keegan (the team’s top catching prospect), giving the Rays a good crop of prospects developing side by side. That group is expected to begin the season together in Durham except for Keegan, who will stay in Port Charlotte while nursing a sore elbow.

“You can definitely tell they’re close,” said Rays pitcher Zack Littell. “They all kind of hang out together in the locker room. You can tell the comfort level amongst them is definitely there. That Kansas City team that won the World Series comes to mind. Those guys came up together and had that reputation as a very, very close, bonded team because they (played) at every level.

“It’s cool to see this group coming through, not to mention the talent that’s there, but great guys. All incredible. They put on a great show here.”

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