The Tampa Bay Rays are in some serious need of thump and they are addressing it by bringing up Bob Seymour.
The 26-year old first baseman has been one of the most prolific power hitters in the Rays system since being selected in the 13th round of the 2021 draft. Seymour has consistently been among the top performing hitters in the Rays system, working his way up to Triple-A Durham in June 2024.
However, as much raw power as Seymour possessed, he has never garnered much clout as a prospect.
Following his midseason promotion in 2024, Seymour put up ridiculous slugging numbers in Triple-A as he hit .269/.353/.601 with 19 HR over just 218 PA (that’s a 52 HR pace over 600 PA). Despite this, the Rays left him off of their 40-man roster in November and made Seymour eligible for the Rule 5 draft.
Baseball America wrote about Seymour as the Rule 5 draft and suggested that Seymour’s susceptibility to striking may lead to teams passing on him; he wasn’t selected.
Thus, Seymour returned to Triple-A Durham for the 2025 season and picked up where he left off and has vastly improved his strikeout rate while still maintaining a high slugging percentage. Entering play on Friday, Seymour leads the International League with 30 HR and has the 6th highest SLG% in the International League with a 25.7% strikeout rate which is around average (22.4%). Seymour has now played a full season in Triple-A (162 games)
According to Baseball America, Seymour flashes 80-raw power and sometimes gets it into games, like he did earlier this year when he blasted a ball 463 feet; Baseball America says the exit velocity was 117.9mph; the exit velocity would be the 12th hardest hit ball in the MLB this season and the hardest hit ball in Tampa Bay Rays history since baseball savant began tracking.
Over his entire minor league career, Seymour is hitting .283/.361/.522 with 89 HR, registering a 135 wRC+ over 1736 plate appearances.
It will be my suggestion that when Seymour plays his first home game for the Rays, the fans in right field should embrace him with Feed me Seymour signs and chants.
There has been a hole in the Rays lineup since Jonathan Aranda went down with an injury on July 31st and the team is hoping that Bob Seymour may be able to add some thump from the left-hand side as they begin a three-game series tonight against the San Francisco Giants.
