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Atlanta Braves 2018 minor league review: catchers

By Benjamin Chase

27 Jun 1998: A general view of the catchers mask for the San Diego Padres sitting on the bench during an interleague game against the Anaheim Angels at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. The Padres defeated the Angels 5-1Mandatory Credit: Todd Wa
27 Jun 1998: A general view of the catchers mask for the San Diego Padres sitting on the bench during an interleague game against the Anaheim Angels at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. The Padres defeated the Angels 5-1Mandatory Credit: Todd Wa /
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Atlanta Braves
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 14: Catcher Kurt Suzuki #24 of the Atlanta Braves looks on against the Washington Nationals in the second inning at Nationals Park on September 14, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

With the minor league season complete, it’s time to take a look back at the performances in the Atlanta Braves system this year.

With the major league club reaching success, many Atlanta Braves fans have shifted their focus from the intense scrutiny of the minor league system that was the norm for the last few seasons to a more concerted cheering for the big league squad – and that’s expected. However, there were some very notable things to happen in the minor league system this year, so it’s definitely worthwhile to review all that happened!

This will be the first of our positional reviews here at Tomahawk Take. We will begin with catcher and work our way through the infield, outfield, right-handed starters, left-handed starter, and relievers. Finally, we will announce our Tomahawk Take 2018 Atlanta Braves organizational team of the year and team awards. That will all lead up to the top 100 prospect list that will once again appear on this page after a year’s hiatus while our Benjamin Chase was working with other sites (though he did produce a top 100 last season, just not with TT!).

We will have the schedule as such:
Tuesday, September 18 – Catchers
Wednesday, September 19 – Corner Infielders
Thursday, September 20 – Middle Infielders
Friday, September 21 – Outfielders
Saturday, September 22 – Starting Pitchers (2 posts)
Sunday, September 23 – Relief Pitchers

We’ll finish the final week with our awards, starting Monday, September 24th. So, let’s get things started with the catching position in the Atlanta Braves system…

Position review

Overall, the catching teaching in the Atlanta Braves system has long been one that has been revered in other organizations. Quite frankly, you don’t build a farm system around developing premium arms if you don’t intentionally develop premium catchers behind the plate to work with them.

This hasn’t necessarily meant that the Atlanta Braves were developing guys with long-term big league futures, however. Many of the players were guys with futures as an “org catcher”, which is never a bad thing, and frankly, many of the current catchers in the organization will likely go on to long coaching careers in baseball when they are done playing. That’s the type of player and person the Braves are developing.

That doesn’t help the big league club win, however, and when fans looked down the system just two years ago, it was hard to see where the hope was for a future behind the plate. That question is no longer an issue – it’s more an issue of how long for the top guy to get to the big leagues.

There are some intriguing names other than the very top of the heap at the position, however, and that’s what we’ll explore!

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