House That Hank Built
Fansided

The 2019 Atlanta Braves’ rookie of the year candidates

By John Le

ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 19: Touki Toussaint #62 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at SunTrust Park on September 19, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 19: Touki Toussaint #62 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at SunTrust Park on September 19, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 6
Next
ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 07: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves runs the bases after hitting a grand slam home run in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game Three of the National League Division Series at SunTrust Park on October 7, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 07: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves runs the bases after hitting a grand slam home run in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game Three of the National League Division Series at SunTrust Park on October 7, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /

Ronald Acuna Jr. rightfully won the NL award in 2018 but who is the next Atlanta Braves prospect to step up as a candidate for 2019?

The system of baseball cranks like an assembly line with fresh, new, young talent every season. We were also treated to the two Rookie of the Year winners for 2018: Atlanta Braves phenom Ronald Acuna Jr. and LA Angels two-way player Shohei Ohtani.

In 2018, baseball fans were also introduced to Juan Soto, Walker Buehler, Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andújar among others.

In 2019, we most likely won’t be seeing another debuting two-way player, but we should be getting some new sluggers in the form of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Eloy Jimenez and perhaps Austin Riley.

We’ll definitely see more pitchers and the Braves will share a large portion of that. Like Acuna Jr. was the early favorite and front runner to win the award last season, Guerrero Jr. is that name for 2019. At least both he and Jimenez are in American League organizations.

So that leaves this question: who is the next Braves prospect to make an impact and contend for the rookie of the year award?

We saw some of those arms last season that would still qualify in 2019 like Kyle Wright and Touki Toussaint and guys coming back from injuries who’ve barely been in the majors like Mike Soroka and Luiz Gohara also qualify.

The Braves will have plenty of contenders and we’ll take a look at the ones that are currently the front-runners of the group.

It’s tough to predict winners with a whole season in between now and the announcement. The prospect could totally bomb their first season even though they had an amazing minor league build and/or a great spring training. They could get injured. They might just miss out and another does just a bit better. Then the organization could also end up not bringing them up until late into the season or not bring them up at all.

Though Acuna Jr. ended up becoming the front runner when the season began due to his amazing Fall League and spring training performances, there were others ahead of him prior to that. Franklin Barreto, Willy Adames, and Victor Robles were some of the names expected to be contenders but none of them made it as finalists.

With that being said, here’s some Braves who have a chance to be the 2019 Rookie of the Year:

Home/Braves News