Atlanta Braves: Reviewing the A-ball Rome Braves Roster

Atlanta Braves Class A Affiliate Rome Braves

Catchers

Lucas Herbert, Jonathan Morales, Wigberto Nevarez

I will admit, I’m astonished at Herbert’s inclusion on the roster. After barely playing at all last season before injury, I figured the team would want to get him as many reps as possible before sending him to full-season ball, possibly even keeping him with his high school teammate and now Braves teammate, Kolby Allard, who remained in extended spring. Morales is the catcher that I believe has the highest ceiling combination of offense and defense skills. I’ll be curious to see how the pairing of he and Herbert will work at the Rome.

Infielders

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Luke Dykstra

Erison Mendez

Austin Riley

Alejandro Salazar

Matt Tellor

This is one area of surprise to me. No mention of Valenzuela, who I was certain would be either here or Carolina. The other surprise is that neither Carlos Castro nor Juan Yepez was bumped up to Rome to start the season, and that left the current Rome roster pretty devoid of infielders. Acuna and Didder were infielders when they were signed, but both have moved to the outfield. Of course, that won’t upset many Rome fans as it means they’ll get to see a whole lot of Riley and Dykstra, two of my top prospects in the entire system, in the same infield.

Outfielders

Ronald Acuna, Ray-Patrick Didder, Justin Ellison, Stephen Gaylor

Okay, folks, I don’t want to alarm you, but there is no hope. No hope at all. No hope whatsoever for any ball hit in the air against a Rome pitcher in 2016. Acuna and Didder very well may be the two best defensive outfielders in the entire Braves organization right now, and they’re in A-ball. Didder is more the defensive specialist, though he has a very solid eye and great speed on the basepaths that could translate into something more offensively. Ellison was a 12th round pick pick last year that brings great defense in his own right along with a very solid power/speed combo to the table. However, all eyes should rightfully be on Acuna. Seriously, he is getting comparisons to Andruw Jones offensively while also receiving exceptional marks as a defender in his first year in center field, so he gets defensive lessons this spring from, guess who? Andruw Jones himself!

Pitchers

Caleb Beech, Trevor Belicek, Matthew Custred, Max Fried, Dalton Geekie, Grayson Jones, Taylor Lewis, Bladimir Matos, Ricardo Sanchez, Chad Sobotka, Mike Soroka, Touki Toussaint, Patrick Weigel.

The pure upside of this pitching staff is tremendous. I’d wager that Fried, Sanchez, Soroka, and Toussaint will be starting for sure, but the fifth spot will be interesting among Beech, Sobotka, and Weigel, all of whom have good starting experience,

Next: Minor League Roster Predictions

Coaching Staff

Randy Ingle – Manager, Bobby Moore – Hitting Coach, Dan Meyer – Pitching Coach, Jose Yepez – Coach (yes, the same Yepez that was catching for AAA Gwinnett last season!)

This is the team. Seriously, the talent already on this roster is absolutely ridiculous, and if you’re going to invest in an milb.com subscription (and seriously, I highly suggest it!), this is the team to watch any time you can get a chance to see them. Every starter has elite talent. The bullpen guys have elite arms. The offense has guys with incredible contact ability (Dykstra), big power (Riley and Morales), speed (Didder), and those with a blend of it all (Acuna and, to a lesser degree, Ellison). The defense will be remarkable at this level. This could be one of those teams that people talk about years down the road.