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.

The Rankings

The report done by Heneghan obviously lists each ten teams and their respective ranking, but she also adds her own commentary and a small scouting report for each notable position-player in the organization.

If you would like to read her assessment of these players, then by all means read her report in full, here. For the redundancy issues I brought up earlier, I’m not going to include those player excerpts provided by Heneghan. I will just list the top-10 ranking she arranged:

Top Organizations (Position Players)

1. Tampa Bay Rays
2. Toronto Blue Jays
3. San Diego Padres
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Cincinnati Reds
6. Los Angeles Dodgers
7. Minnesota Twins
8. Los Angeles Angels
9. Atlanta Braves 
10. Washington Nationals

The first four teams of MiLB.com’s rankings consist of four organizations that most would all agree on as the top-4. Players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays), Fernando Tatis Jr. (Padres), and Brendan McKay (Rays) are general household names in the prospect industry.

The White Sox having outfielder Eloy Jimenez in their system gives them a substantial boost as well. Along with second baseman, and 2018 fourth-overall pick, Nick Madrigal.

Those top-4 teams on the list have several position-players that will be making contributions at the Major League level real soon.

Sitting in between the LA Angels (yes, they actually made the list!) and Washington Nationals, is the Atlanta Braves. Heneghan mentions six Minor League Players in her excerpt regarding the Braves.

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.