Atlanta Braves minors: 5 biggest offseason storylines
By Clint Manry
5. Hitters are making a comeback
For an organization that prides itself in wielding one of the deepest and most prolific classes of prospect pitchers, I’m afraid the upper realms of the Atlanta Braves prospect rankings has begun to shift in the last few years.
The Braves ended yet another season with a top-10 prospect class in 2019, now ranked No. 6 on FanGraphs’ THE BOARD and worth a whopping $249 million in prospect surplus.
1 | Tampa Bay Rays | $420 million |
2 | San Diego Padres | $363 million |
3 | LA Dodgers | $302 million |
4 | Miami Marlins | $258 million |
5 | Arizona D-Backs | $250 million |
Yes, the foundation of the Braves organization is strong pitching and defense, but talented position-player prospects are now on the rise, and frankly, have been for a few years now.
But just be aware that there’s more to the Braves’ farm system then top-shelf starting pitchers and flamethrowing relievers — the times are changing.
Consider the current state of the Braves’ top-ranked prospects, compared to the end of the 2018 season. While pitchers are still pacing the rankings list, position-players are making a decent sized push, increasing by almost 8 percent since then:
Currently, 14 of the ranked Braves’ prospects (31 total) are position-players (45.1%); while at the end of the 2018 season, 11-of-33 were position-players (33.3%).
At the beginning of 2017, you had Dansby Swanson, Ozzie Albies, and Ronald Acuna Jr. leading the Braves’ prospect class; last season it was Cristian Pache and Austin Riley as the organization’s Nos. 1 and 3 (Mike Soroka was ranked No. 2); and at the moment the class is led by Pache (13th in all of baseball), Drew Waters (21st), and catcher William Contreras.
Even more, the Braves spent its first two picks in the 2019 MLB Draft on highly-touted position-players Shea Langeliers (catcher) and Braden Shewmake (shortstop), with both players ranked 8th and 10th on the Braves’ current list, respectively.
Going back to the dynamic outfield duo — Pache and Waters — there are no Braves’ position-player prospects closer to the majors than those two.
The pair of 20-year-old outfielders just got done posting crazy-good numbers in 2019, ascending to Triple-A Gwinnett in the process:
- Pache: 130 G, .277 AVG, .802 OPS, 12 HR, 36 doubles, 9 triples, 8 stolen bases
- Waters: 134 G, .309 AVG, .819 OPS, 7 HR, 40 doubles, 9 triples, 16 stolen bases
Pache made great strides in the plate discipline department, wrapping up the 2019 season in Gwinnett with a much better 17.1 K%, rather than the 25.7% rate he finished with in 2018 while with Mississippi.
Waters was so great in Double-A Mississippi (.847 OPS / 35 doubles) that he won the Southern League MVP award, not to mention an invite to play for the United States in the upcoming Olympics (which he accepted).
And it wasn’t just the top two prospects making waves this season for the Braves:
- Catcher Alex Jackson (No. 9) belted 28 home runs in just 85 games for Gwinnett, after hitting only eight homers in 99 games in 2018.
- Outfielder Trey Harris (No. 24) soared up the proverbial ladder of the Braves’ organization, playing for three different clubs in 2019 — is also currently playing for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League — and hit .323 with 14 home runs and 26 doubles in 131 total games.
- As I mentioned above, Shewmake hit the ground running and had a nice pro debut himself, hitting .318 (151 wRC+) in Single-A Rome for 51 games before slowing down a bit in Double-A Mississippi.
And there are even some lower-level guys that obviously have a ways to go, but performed extremely well in their first taste of pro ball: Two 18-year-old hitters, outfielder Michael Harris (No. 17) and infielder Vaughn Grissom (No. 18).
Sure, these are prospects, and while the odds are high that at least a few of these players will later morph into quality major league contributors… it’s still quite a fickle process.