Not just pitchers: The Atlanta Braves have a top-10 position-group in the Minors

We know about the top-grade pitchers that the Braves have been forging down in the Minors, but don’t let them obscure the position-player talent currently stockpiled as well.

There has been an unbalanced, or maybe even a “lopsided” interpretation of the prospect talent in the Atlanta Braves‘ organization. As a consequence, there’s an entire group of young Braves’ players that aren’t getting the industry-wide attention they may deserve.

Now to be fair, Braves’ fans may not necessarily represent this group of uninformed. We all have a pretty knowledgeable handle on how things are going down in the Minors.

The writers here, and at other Braves’ sites, stay on top of things rather diligently. But I have noticed that even among fellow fans of the team, there is a bit of neglect when it comes to non-pitching prospects in the Braves’ organization.

On February 11th, Kelsie Heneghan of MiLB.com, covered the top-ten team for position-player prospects of Major League Baseball. Her report not only ranked each ten organizations, but she also included a general overview of the top talent on each team.

Several of the rankings should be of little surprise, as it’s pretty apparent who the top-three or even top-five organizations are. However, it did somewhat surprise me that the Braves were included on this list, as a top-10 organization.

I assumed that with the likes of: Cristian Pache, Austin Riley and Drew Waters, that the Braves would certainly be ranked in the top half of Major League Baseball, but according to Heneghan’s respected research, the Braves come in at a solid 9th.

That’s ninth in all of baseball, folks. When you think about the starting-pitching depth in the organization right now, coupled with the fact that the Braves, recently announced, also have a top-ten position-player group – the reality is really eye-opening.

I’ve already covered the top-10 Braves’ prospects overall this past weekend, on the subject of the recently released Top-100 Prospect Leaderboard that the guys at Fangraphs put out annually.

Also, the unofficial, but official yearly “Prospect Week” is all wrapped up, so there’s no need for me to go into too much detail regarding these players. Most of the information would be redundant with other things you might have read.

However, a look at the prospect position-player rankings put out by MiLB.com is an appropriate conclusion on the topic, if you will.

I wrote about 4 of these 6 players this past weekend, as they were amongst the top-100 prospect overview provided.

The Talent

1. (OF) Cristian Pache
2. (3B) Austin Riley
3. (OF) Drew Waters
4. (C) William Contreras
5. (OF) Greyson Jenista 
6. (2B) Derian Cruz

Let’s focus on those two players in bold, since those two guys aren’t written or talked about as much as the other four.

(OF) Greyson Jenista 

Jenista was a second-round (49th overall) pick by the Braves in 2018, and the kid didn’t take long to shoot up to Advanced-A Ball. He was fortunate enough to play in 19 games for the Florida Fire Frogs and get a bit of a head start for this upcoming season.

2018 Rookie Ball wasn’t much of a problem for Jenista, as he OPS’d .848 in a quick 40 at-bat assignment there, before moving up to A-Ball and hitting. 333 with an .830 OPS in 32 games.

Jenista came back down to earth a bit once he was granted his final promotion of the season, but remember – baseball is hard.

Overall, through three levels of pro ball for Greyson Jenista in 2018, the stat card looks like this:

• 61 games
• .265/.328/.395
• .723 OPS
• 4 HR
• 34 RBI

The right fielder committed three errors and six assists in 53 starts in the outfield – good for a .973 FLD%.  RF is his preferred position, but he could also man the opposite corner, first base, or (shudder) could be a possible future DH.

Here’s Jenista crushing one in college a couple of years ago.

And another blast (a towering…triple) by Jenista while playing for the Rome Braves this past July.

He sure has a pretty swing from the left side. Let’s hope for a healthy 2019 for the 22-year-old outfielder, and hopefully his head start in Florida will pay off.

(2B) Derian Cruz

He made a splash early on,  but Derian Cruz hasn’t been discussed much lately.

Cruz was signed by the Braves out of the Dominican Republic in 2016, as a 17-year-old shortstop. He’s had his ups and downs, but Cruz is still on track, as a now 20-year-old who just finished 112 games in Single-A in 2018.

Not blessed with a lot of upside in the power department (only 8 career home runs), Cruz is noteworthy for his legs (70-grade speed).

Check this triple out by Cruz back in 2017:

The stats look eerily similar to that of Billy Hamilton – a fast guy, but he doesn’t get on base enough to feature his speed.

A path to the Majors is somewhat nonexistent at the moment – as 2018 saw Cruz spend the majority of his time at second base – and at 20-years-old he’s not expected to be challenging Ozzie Albies for playing time anytime soon.

Cruz was signed as a shortstop, but an .889 fielding percentage likely isn’t going to grant him a shortcut to the Show either – if you’re into FLD% anymore as a defensive stat.

Derian Cruz’s best case scenario is to do whatever it was he did back in 2016 when he played 26 games for the GCL Braves. Cruz actually had a real solid stint at the plate:

• 26 games
• .309/.336/.445
• .782 OPS
• 2 HR
• 16 RBI
• 7 doubles
• 4 stolen bases
• 132 wRC+

Unfortunately, Cruz did only walk twice in 117 plate-appearances (1.7 BB%), but once again folks, baseball is hard!

2019 could be vital to Cruz as he struggled at Rome in 2018 with a slash line of only .222/.254/.308/.562 which included 30 errors and 114 strikeouts.

He’s got the talent… but we’ll see if he can regroup and show a bit of that upside.

Positional Awareness

The Braves aren’t just developing future star pitchers. The organization has more to offer than just top-of-the-rotation hurlers.

Now you shouldn’t read this and interpret this article as a statement that these six players are what make up the Atlanta Braves’ position-player future. There are so many other position-players in the organization that contribute to the team’s top-10 ranking.

The two players we focus on out of the group of Braves listed by Heneghan were just two names in an organization full of Minor League players that have a bright future ahead.

I’m sure many of you already knew that the Braves ranked closer to the top in regards to non-pitcher prospects, but this is just a reminder for those that maybe forgot, or didn’t realize, it’s not just the pitchers that we as Braves’ fans should be excited for.