Atlanta Braves Midseason Top 50 Prospects: 30-21

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May 3, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; The glove of Texas Rangers shortstop Hanser Alberto (2) during batting practice before a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. The Toronto Blue Jays won 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports /

28. Juan Yepez, 1B, Low-A Rome

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The jewel of the 2014 international free agent class, Yepez has been a guy that Braves fans that follow prospects have known about since his signing and loaded with expectations. As with any prospect, many of those expectations are fair, but a great prospect shows signs of meeting many of them.

Last seasons, at 17 years old, the Venezuelan-born Yepez made his debut in the Braves system with the GCL team. After 31 games, it became clear that he was not being challenged, and he was promoted to Danville, where he still put up a .291 batting average and slugged .466. Overall, he hit .299/.364/.458 over 228 plate appearance between the two levels with 22 extra base hits, and he even stole 3 bases.

Yepez is a developed young man, having come into this season with a very mature physical stature at only 18. However, one of the notable things for many who saw him last season was that Yepez had trimmed away some of the “baby fat” of his first year in the system. He struggled with his batting eye to some degree with Danville last season, and some of that carried forward this year to Rome. He did increase his walk rate from his stint at Danville to an acceptable 7.4%, but his strikeout rate is over 27%.

Yepez was injured early in May, after he had much improved defense, and had even been tried some back at his original position, third base. With his high-end contact skills and solid power potential, if he can handle third, that would make him even more valuable.

27. Jonathan Morales, C, Low-A Rome

Morales was selected in the 25th round last season out of Miami-Dade College. The Puerto Rico native was not drafted out of high school, but after spending a season in community college, the Braves had seen enough to take a chance on Morales.

Morales only came out and his .300/.377/.511 with GCL last season with 7 home runs. He showed tremendous power, but even more impressive, he showed excellent strike zone judgement, and while his lateral movement behind the plate needed work, he showed excellent blocking ability and a strong arm that could allow him to stay behind the plate going forward.

Morales came out early this season and put up an incredible April, hitting .295 in April, though there were signs that he was struggling even with the excellent batting average. He had a 3/12 BB/K ratio in April over 84 plate appearances, something out of line with his reputation and with his performance in GCL in 2015. He’s slumped ever since, with a .268 BA in May and two months now at .150 since. That all said, Morales has been getting his act together with his walk rate increasing ever since, and his strikeout reducing ever since April as well.

The big concern with Morales was whether he’d be able to stay behind the plate. However, defense has been where Morales has shown all season long. he had 11 passed balls in 34 games in 2015. This season, he has 2 in 38 games, and he’s 1 runner short of throwing out exactly 50% of runners attempting to steal on him. He’s exhibited exceptional skills not just in his throwing but also in his lateral movement. The Braves have noted the work that Morales put into his defense, and in order to get him into the lineup, they’ve begun working with Morales at third base in July.

If Morales can start to beat back the BABIP gods to some degree, I think you’d see him to around a .250-.260/.330/.375-.400 line, and with the improvement on his defense, I think the Braves would be overjoyed with that level of offensive progress from Morales.

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