Atlanta Braves Midseason Top 50 Prospects: 31-40
40. Tyler Neslony, 1B/OF, Florida Fire Frogs
Neslony was a college sign pick from Texas Tech in the 9th round of the 2016 draft who was known for his bat and his competitiveness with the Red Raiders.
Neslony lasted just 5 games at Danville before he was moved up to the Rome team last year, where he was able to work alongside elite defenders like Ray-Patrick Didder, Ronald Acuna, and Jared James to cover his rough defensive skills in the outfield. Overall, he hit .280/.341/.384 last season between Danville and Rome.
Neslony opened the year at high-A Florida, where he was used to split between first base and the corner outfield spots. Initially tagged for a bench role, Neslony’s bat started incredibly hot, and he pushed his way into the lineup.
Neslony has shown, however, that his glove really doesn’t play anywhere. In 21 games at first base, he’s made 9 errors. In the corner outfield, he has very rough range. However, he’s currently hitting .315/.384/.455, with 16 doubles and 3 home runs.
Neslony may not provide a 30 home run bat or an elite glove, but he’s a guy who can certainly hit, and there’s going to be a role for that as he moves up, and if he can put in the work to improve his corner outfield defense, he’ll find a spot with a bat that can hit for a high average.
39. Derian Cruz, SS, Danville Braves
Coming into the 2015 international free agent period, the Atlanta Braves set out to acquire additional IFA bonus money in order to afford signing Cruz and Cristian Pache together without going over, in order to avoid the penalty for the big 2016 IFA class.
Cruz came out last season, and his walk rate was completely absent, but his impressive wrist speed allowed for good enough bat speed to hit well in the GCL before really falling flat once he hit Danville. Crus flashed plus speed and raw defensive skills that likely profiled off of shortstop, but he was still 17 the entire season, so his youth certainly impacted some of his struggles.
The Braves decided to be aggressive with Cruz in 2017 and assigned him to low-A Rome, hoping his Danville stop was more an effect of his youth and that he could show positive steps with the aggressive assignment. Instead, Cruz stumbled out of the gate and just got worse from there, eventually demoted back to extended spring hitting .167/.207/.237 with a 3/35 BB/K ratio over 29 games.
Why is Cruz still a top 40 prospect with this sort of resume? Simply put, he’s 18 until October, and he’s still figuring out where his glove plays before he can really address the bat. I have dropped him significantly from 26 in the preseason to 39, and it’s entirely feasible that if he doesn’t pick it up with Danville this season, he could find his way out of the top 50 and having to earn his way back up again.
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