Sam Dykstra

I think the Arizona Diamondbacks have been pretty clear.

They are looking for pitching talent back.

Getting Anderson Brito from the Astros, getting Michael Frett from the Orioles, those are two really good pitching prospects in their own right.

And they had to get them from separate organizations.

This wasn't something you could orchestrate in a three-team deal if you wanted to send Marte from Arizona to Tampa Bay and Boz to Tampa Bay to –

baltimore and some pieces in between so they're gathering up some some ways to make that happen i think you know again if the rays were to go into 2026 with this farm system it would feel like the days of old all over again so they're giving themselves options if nothing else all right so let's go through the list of guys they got now in case people don't know

Yeah, good for him.

And also, I mean, he's part of that Pirates or was part of that Pirates pitching staff that was just getting too deep.

I mean, like good for the Pirates for acknowledging, hey, this guy was maybe our number four, number five.

The Astros probably think they can unlock something in him and they're going to have him for multiple controllable years.

I mean, it just seemed to work really well, at least in terms of two thirds of that trade pie.

So it's funny we're having this conversation because along with Adam Barry, AdamBarry, the Rays.com reporter, he does the preseason list and then I take over the Rays from there and do some

off-season additions, in-season additions, trades, whatever.

So I've lined these guys already up on MLB.com slash pipeline.

So we'll start with Jacob Melt, the outfielder, formerly the Houston Astros, was a top 100 prospect for us for a bit, kind of slid off of that, then had a great year at AAA this year, was in the majors, was dealing with an ankle sprain, probably should have graduated by now, but technically has prospect status remaining.

He's a really good fielder in center.

He's got some speed.

He's got some power.

He's struggled against left-handers in the past, and he's also struggled to lift and pull the ball.

Those trends turned around in 2025 in AAA.