Tampa Bay drafted Simpson in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft
The Tampa Bay Rays are calling up perhaps the fastest player in professional baseball, Marc Topkin reports.
That player is 24-year-old outfielder Chandler Simpson, whom the Rays took in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Georgia Tech. As Simpson’s minor league career slash line of .324/.389/.371 will tell you, he has very little raw power going for him, but he can definitely hit for average. Most impressive, though, is Simpson’s speed on the bases.
Across parts of four minor-league seasons, Simpson has stolen 214 bases in 250 games played with an 85.9% success rate. In 2024 alone, Simpson pilfered 104 bases in 110 combined games across two levels. As well, thanks in large measure to his best-in-class speed, he has hit into just six double plays in his entire professional career.
Here’s a recent viral look at Simpson’s speed in action:
His reported promotion to the majors comes after a 17-game stint at Triple-A this season in which he batted .301/.325/.329 with eight thefts in 11 attempts.
As with any such slap-hitting player, the challenge is going to be handling major-league velocity and stuff despite having effectively zero in-game power and presumably below-average bat speed. Early comparisons to Billy Hamilton are all but inevitable, but Simpson, unlike Hamilton in his playing days, has a knack for hitting the ball on the ground. That’s typically not a desirable trait in a hitter. But Simpson’s speed and knack for making contact (he’s struck out in just 8.7% of his plate appearances in the minors) mean that putting the ball on the ground is actually beneficial. That’s to say, he’s probably going to beat out an outsized share of infield hits.
Challenging adjustments are ahead for Simpson without question, but his skill set could immediately make him one of the most entertaining hitters around.
