The Bowling Green Hot Rods have had plenty of top prospects and future major leaguers come through Bowling Green Ballpark in the franchise’s first 14 years.

From Blake Snell to Kevin Kiermaier the talent has been on display seemingly every season, but the 2024 roster, which takes the field for the first time on Friday against Hudson Valley at 6:35 p.m. at Bowling Green Ballpark may be the deepest opening-day roster from a talent standpoint yet. Seven of the Tampa Bay Rays’ top 30 prospects are part of the opening-day roster – a mix of 15 returning players and 13 newcomers that has second-year BG manager Rafael Valenzuela excited for the upcoming season.

Valenzuela and top prospects Xavier Isaac and Brayden Taylor met with the media on Tuesday at Bowling Green Ballpark, expressing their excitement at the talent that will be on display to open the season.

“I will be honest when I looked at the roster I was surprised,” Valenzuela said. “I was like, ‘They are giving me this responsibility.’ It was kind of funny, but I am very excited. I know the staff is excited to get rolling. We’ve got a lot of talent and we are excited to show out Friday.”

Isaac, the No. 4-rated prospect in the Rays system, appeared in 12 games with the Hot Rods. The 2022 first-round pick said he is excited to open in Bowling Green looking to build off a 2023 campaign where he hit 19 homers and finished with a .916 OPS.

“I’m a little familiar with (Bowling Green),” Isaac said. “I’m familiar with Rafi for a couple of years. I know he is going to be a good manager. I’m ready to play – excited to play with the players that we have.

“We are stacked. We are trying to make the big leagues one day. We are just trying to take it day by day and take it step by step. I love where I am and I am ready to play.”

Brayden Taylor was a first-round pick in the 2023 draft and begins his first full season of professional baseball. Like Isaac, he said he is excited to see what this team can do.

“It’s really cool to see all these guys come together on one team,” Taylor said. “I’ve only been with these guys for a little bit of spring training and now it is exciting to go out there and play against someone else and get to work together.”

Taylor begins the season as the No. 5 prospect in the Rays system.

“It’s a big honor to have that number put on us, but I really don’t pay attention to those numbers,” Taylor said. “I am out here every day trying to get better, develop and go get some wins. That’s our main goal. My parents like to see those numbers, but I just have to go out there and focus day to day.”

The roster also includes No. 12 prospect Chandler Simpson, No. 16 prospect Colton Ledbetter, No. 24 prospect Cooper Kinney as part of the positional players, with No. 18 prospect Yoniel Curet and No. 21 prospect Trevor Martin both slated to be part of the rotation to start the season.

“If you take a look from top to bottom, our whole system is stacked with really, really good players,” Valenzuela said. “All the way from the big leagues down to the complex it is just a juggernaut of phenomenal players. The young latin guys we are getting from the academy, they are coming in hungry and ready to play. When you go to Charleston those guys are itching to get here. These guys are obviously itching to get to the next level.

“If you take a look at it, we have done a lot of winning. That’s a credit to our staff. That’s a credit to our front office and everyone involved in it because they are making our job a lot easier. They are sending us really good players. It is easy to work when the talent is very good.”

Valenzuela said this roster is very balanced.

“Defensively our infielders are phenomenal,” Valenzuela said. “We can drive the ball, but we can run. I’m expecting us to steal a lot of bases. I am expecting us to be aggressive on the bases when needed. We have seven or eight guys, maybe 10 guys, that can hit it out of the yard when they want to, but we also have guys that can run. I think all around we are pretty solid. I think there is not one thing we are going to be great at, but we are going to be very, very good at everything we do.”

And ultimately the goal is to get this talent prepared for what lies ahead, particularly at the next level which is seen as the potential make-or-break point for players hoping to eventually make the jump to the major league level.

“This is the kind of level that basically decides whether or not you are ready for the next level, which is the Double A level,” Valenzuela said. “From what I have heard from other managers and what I experienced as a player, it is just an absolute bloodbath. It is prospects versus prospects. It’s the top prospects from every organization. At this level right now what we are trying to do is to make sure these guys understand they take advantage of us and they understand how to work the mechanics – how to fix their hitting as quickly as possible, how to make adjustments as quickly as possible.

“When you do happen to get to Montgomery at the next level, everything is so much faster than it is here. Guys are so much better. They can spin stuff for strikes. Guys can put you away if you don’t manage to hit the pitch that is given to you.”