Tampa Bay Rays hit pitcher market hard on Day 2 of 2024 MLB Draft

Day 2 of the 2024 MLB Draft took place on Monday, and the Tampa Bay Rays got to work, making eight selections following Night 1 selections of Theo Gillen, Emilien Pitre, and Tyler Bell.

Out of the eight picks made by the Rays during Monday's draft period, seven of them are pitching prospects. This helps to hold the Tampa Bay identity of a pitching factory, giving them several more hacks at creating some great pitchers.

The Rays' lone, non-pitching draft pick during Day 2 was Nathan Flewelling, a catcher out of St. Joseph High School in Alberta, Canada. He represented the most expensive approximate pick value of the day, coming in at $776.5K. But the pitchers began flying into the Rays' hands in the fourth round as they selected Nate Knowles out of William & Mary. He's a powerful-looking prospect with a 2.48 ERA and 112 strikeouts in 80.0 innings during his 2024 season with the Tribe.

Rays MLB Draft: Power Pitchers on Day 2

More pitchers followed the Knowles pick, including some big-time college names like Oregon State's Jacob Kmatz, Oklahoma State's Janzen Keisel, Pittsburgh's Ryan Andrade, South Carolina's Garrett Gainey, and Kentucky's Trey Pooser. All of these players are balanced pitchers who get strikeouts and had great collegiate ERAs.

Andrade offers a great four-pitch mix that can become really good if he hits the strike zone at a higher rate. Pooser is a masterful control pitcher that limited the long ball a lot at the College of Charleston, which is where he played before Kentucky. Gainey and Kmatz are good at limiting free passes, allowing just 49 out of 581 combined batters faced. Keisel, much like Pooser, gives up very few home runs, allowing only two in 2024.

Tampa Bay added junior college pitching prospect Jayden Voelker in the eighth round as well. He played at North Essex Community College in 2024 and posted some big numbers, finishing with a 2.89 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 51.0 innings of work.

Tampa Bay added a ton of experimental arms to thier system on Day 2, and it is drafts like this by Erik Neander and the front office that keep the Rays competitive in the grand scheme of Major League Baseball. Their farm system can be retooled with pitching talent, which continues the staple Tampa Bay has had for many years.