Atlanta Braves top 100 Prospects: #55 Mauricio Cabrera

2016 Outlook

Cabrera’s arm motion allows his high velocity to be “visible” for an exceptionally long time for both sides of the plate. When he’s missing his spots, he can begin “aiming” to get the pitch over, and all of the sudden, he’s throwing a high-90s pitch into the meat of the zone, and pitchers up in the minors and certainly in the majors will drive that ball to no end. His future relies 100% on his ability to command his pitches as his arm motion, and his ability to keep his hand on top of the ball rather than flinging the ball. Cabrera’s velocity is something you don’t just teach, but the Braves now have as many as a handful of guys who can match Cabrera’s top end velocity, so it’s not something that the organization needs to hoard for scarcity in the organization.

Next: Braves Top 100 Prospects Updated

Cabrera will most likely return to Mississippi, and if he can work the change low in the zone, stay on top of his fastball and change, and throw with command and velocity both, he’ll explode up the system to Atlanta. So far, that’s been the struggle is maintaining the velocity while also keeping the ball in zone, so we’ll keep an eye on his progress as that velocity certainly is valuable if he can keep it in the zone, but as we’ve seen recently with guys like Juan Jaime, just throwing the ball really, really hard doesn’t mean there’s value to a major league bullpen.