This Rays prospect has been a breakout star in Minors

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- A week after Tre' Morgan was promoted from Single-A Charleston to the Bowling Green Hot Rods, the Rays’ High-A affiliate hit the road for a series against the Winston-Salem Dash.

Morgan was coming off an excellent start with Charleston, having slashed .320/.398/.440 with only 13 strikeouts in 115 plate appearances. He’d been using the same bat the entire season, too, he said. So as he packed his bag for his first South Atlantic League trip in late May, he packed only the one bat.

Then a funny thing happened in his first at-bat, with a runner on and one out in the first inning.

“I get to two strikes and I’m battling, and I swing at like a 97 mph sinker, low and away. Off the cap. I’m like, ‘Oh, no, this bat’s broken,’” Morgan recalled this summer. “I walk to the dugout, and I’m like, ‘Somebody just hand me any bat. Just give me something.’ The next pitch, I hit a double with, like, a log."

Morgan learned his lesson from that experience. He takes two bats on the road now. And that wacky tale was another reminder of what the Rays have seen all season from Morgan, a third-round pick in last year’s Draft: The man can hit.

A 22-year-old first baseman out of LSU, Morgan joined the Rays’ organization with a reputation of being a potential Gold Glove-caliber defender at first base. He hit well in college, but there were some questions about how his contact-driven profile might translate to the next level.

But Morgan’s bat has boosted his stock this season as much as any prospect in Tampa Bay’s Minor League system, vaulting him from Charleston to Double-A Montgomery -- and creating a ton of excitement within the organization about his future.

“What he's done with the bat all year has been super impressive,” Rays vice president/assistant general manager Kevin Ibach said. “It's probably the most competitive at-bat in the Minor Leagues that I've seen all year, and I think I've heard that same sentiment spoken by a lot of opposing scouts -- just how well he competes in the box, how he never gives away an at-bat."

While playing 100 regular-season games between three of the Rays’ four full-season affiliates, Morgan slashed .324/.408/.483 with 10 home runs, 23 doubles, 68 RBIs, 20 stolen bases and the same number of walks (48) as strikeouts over 437 plate appearances. Now ranked the Rays’ No. 10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, Morgan spent most of his time at first base (54 starts), but he also worked at DH (29 starts) and in left field (16).

“Three levels in one season, never missing a beat with the bat, but also being a versatile defender,” Ibach said. “He can impact the game on both sides of the baseball.”

Morgan’s numbers in a small sample at Double-A aren’t great, but the fact that he was promoted a second time to join an already loaded squad speaks more to his potential. With Montgomery, he’s sharing a clubhouse with fellow top prospects Carson Williams (Tampa Bay’s No. 1 prospect, No. 4 overall), Xavier Isaac (No. 2, No. 18 overall), Brayden Taylor (No. 3, No. 47 overall), triple-digit steal artist Chandler Simpson (No. 4), Dominic Keegan (No. 13) and Matthew Etzel (No. 24).

The Rays hope that group, along with the pitchers and other position-player prospects they’ve developed and acquired, will continue to grow together to form the core of future contending teams. If they can create chemistry and win together now in the Minors -- Montgomery begins its postseason on Tuesday when it opens a best-of-three Southern League South Division Series -- it should only help them down the road.

Morgan knows a thing or two about winning, having come from an LSU program that won the College World Series in 2023 thanks to players such as Morgan and a few others you may have heard of: Paul Skenes, Dylan Crews, et al. And Morgan clearly knows what makes him successful as a hitter, something he explained to MLB.com before heading off to the inaugural Futures Skills Showcase in July.

“Definitely contact over power, and I’ll do anything not to strike out. That’s my way of going about it,” he said at the time. “Baseball’s a team sport, obviously, but when you step in the box, it’s you vs. the guy on the mound. I’ve had that thought process since high school. It’s just not wanting to lose to that guy, and if he strikes me out, that’s considered a loss.”

Morgan didn’t lose too often this season. For the Rays, having him in the system already feels like a win.

“He’s maintained that consistency in his approach in [Single]-A, High-A and now Double-A,” Ibach said. “You never know that, for sure, coming out of college. He was lauded for his glovework, but I think the approach has stayed consistent with what he was at LSU, and it’s translated well to the pro game."