2025 Draysbay Community Prospect Review: Ty Johnson

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.

What Danny wrote entering the season:

Acquired as the final piece of the Paredes trade, Johnson is tall with blossoming velocity as a professional. His fastball is flat but up to 98 and he features a breaking ball with glove-side action that has constantly improved since being drafted. Johnson’s delivery has a unique dip and drive that features a compact arm action for his size, and finishes with a late leg kick and spin. His lack of a third pitch gives a reliever projection, but the Rays pitching lab has plenty of time to see if they can develop something horizontal to give him a starter’s projection.

Over the course of the 2025 season, 23-year old Ty Johnson (now 24) was perhaps best starting pitcher in all of minor league baseball. He ranked 2nd in FIP, 4th in AVG, 21st in ERA, 3rd in K%, and 4th in WHIP. Given the results, it’s hard to believe that some prospect pundits believe Johnson’s future is in the bullpen due to a lack of a 3rd pitch. Early on in the season, the Rays did have Johnson pitch out of the bullpen but moved him to the starting rotation full time in May.

On May 18th, Johnson switched to the starting rotation and his numbers from that point on were incredible as he logged a 2.05 ERA | 2.04 FIP with a 34.6 K% & 7.9 BB%, while opponents hit just .166 against him over 92 IP.

2025 SEASON NUMBERS:AA: 2.61 ERA | 2.33 FIP | 34.7 K% | 8.8 BB% | .172 AVG | 17.7 WHIFF% | 110.1 IP | 20/26 GS/G

Despite some scouts believing that Johnson’s future lies in the bullpen, the Rays will likely keep him in the starting rotation until the results force them to make another decision. The 24-year old Johnson will likely take a spot in the Durham Bulls rotation in 2026, just one step away from reaching the big leagues.

So is Johnson’s stock improving, the same, or falling?