Rookies to watch in the MLB playoffs: World Series contenders relying on these youngsters

The general consensus in the baseball world when the Tampa Bay Rays dealt Blake Snell to the San Diego Padres months after winning pennant was: huh?

Having a player development system – and one of the best minor league systems – that consistently yields players who perform at an above-replacement player level allows an organization to operate that way with the confidence they can get the job done on the biggest stages.

The Rays are back atop the American League East and have eclipsed 90 wins for the third time in four years. That fourth year, 2020, they won two-thirds of their games (40-20) and advanced to the World Series where they fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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