Dylan Ray might be ahead only of Jose Fernandez, in terms of being the least well-known player on the 40-man roster. Ray was a fourth-round pick in 2022, after barely thirty collegiate innings, and it has been an up-and-down struggle since. Of the four “real” levels at which he has played, High-A ball is the only one where his ERA has been below five. To be fair, pitching in Amarillo or Reno is going to play hell with any prospect’s raw numbers, and last year, he did well in Amarillo. He posted a 3.93 ERA across his ten starts at the Double-A level, which is more than an entire run better than the Sod Poodles’ collective figure. It was also an improvement on his 5.22 in sixteen starts there during 2024.
What’s interesting – and a little odd – is, Ray has managed to reach the cusp of the major leagues without anyone particularly noticing. In terms of written material, for example, I found an interview Michael did with him for the SnakePit in October 2024, when Ray was appearing in the Arizona Fall League. Jack spoke to him last spring, after he was given the ball to start the Spring Breakout game against the Royals, and Ray addressed the perils of high-offense environments: “I’ll look back at it not from a results oriented standpoint, but more process oriented. Did I execute the pitch, throw it where I wanted it to go. The results take care of themselves at the end of the day.”
Since that? A video interview (below) from the Aces on the dreaded Ticky-Tac, just after Dylan had made his first start for Reno, after his promotion from Amarillo. That came on the heels of him being named the organization’s minor-league pitcher of the month for May. He went a perfect 5-0 across five starts with the Sod Poodles, pitching to a 2.03 ERA and holding batters to a .168 average, with a stellar K:BB ratio of 35:3 across 31 innings. Reno proved a rough awakening, as his ERA was a hair above seven across his first ten starts for the Aces. His strikeouts and walks both went in the wrong direction (38:24 in 52.2 IP).
But Dylan was able to put together a good string out outings in August, with a 3.81 ERA and 22:8 K:BB over 26 innings. That included 5.1 shutout innings in Reno against Sacramento, a game where he struck out nine, matching a career high. While he may have run out of gas down the stretch – he faced only four batters in his last start of 2025 – Ray had still done enough to convince the D-backs he needed protecting from the Rule 5 draft. They duly added him to the 40-man roster in December, when other, higher-profile names like Christian Montes De Oca, A.J. Vukovich, and Kristian Robinson were left eligible.
It was something of a surprise, given he wasn’t particularly highly-ranked as a prospect in the Arizona system. A few days after the Rule 5 draft, Ray was only ranked #45 in Fangraphs’ list of our top prospects, though Prospects 1500 had him just inside the top thirty. The former’s write-up suggested he might be better off converted to a reliever. “He’s velocity sensitive — everything plays fine at the very top of his velo band, but he gets hit when he dips — and in my looks his gas has tended to tail off throughout his outing. It’s worth seeing if Ray can add velo and maybe turn his above-average slider into a plus hammer in short stints.”
The manner of that final departure – Ray left the mound with a trainer, his velocity being sharply down – does give some pause for concern. I haven’t found any indications of an injury being involved, but as the case of Andrew Saalfrank showed, we are often the last to hear about these things. Fingers crossed it was simply fatigue rather than anything more meaningful. Ray’s subsequent addition to the roster is a hopeful sign, though the situation with Rule 5 picks and the IL is a murky one. [If they aren’t active for 90 days, the roster restriction carries forward to the next year] Hopefully, we’ll see him in spring, and any concerns about his health can be put to rest.
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