Atlanta Braves first round pick lands in top 10 catching prospects for 2020
The Atlanta Braves first-round selection of the 2019 draft Shea Langeliers was listed in the Top 10 catching prospects for mlb.com.
The article written by Mike Rosenbaum places the Atlanta Braves prospect Shea Langeliers at number six on the list.
This is quite impressive considering Shea was just drafted just last year and has only reached Single-A Rome.
The only other player that was listed from this draft class was the number one overall pick and Team USA teammate, Adley Rutschman. It could be interesting to watch how these catchers develop in the future.
The article also lists an updated Major League ETA of 2021, which would also be an impressive mark considering Langeliers is only 22. Typically catchers take a long time to develop due to the importance of their defense.
It takes time to learn how to call a game and become a great framer. However, one of the key reasons he was selected ninth overall in the 2019 draft was due to his advanced defensive game.
The article references it as it lists the highest graded catchers in the respective categories and Langeliers comes in tied for first with his arm with a grade of 70, which is well above average. He also carries a grade of 60 for fielding, which is above average.
It’s mentioned in the article that in his time at Rome he threw out 41 percent of baserunners. To put that into perspective, Yadier Molina led the Major Leagues last year throwing out 40.21 percent of runners according to Baseball Reference.
This is an exciting development to have a catching prospect with this level of prowess. It seemingly feels as if catcher was the missing piece to the Atlanta Braves prospect puzzle.
With the future outfield envisioned of being Ronald Acuña, Christian Pache, and Drew Waters. The future infield anchored by an aging Freddie Freeman and energized by the youth of Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, and Austin Riley.
Finally, the real strength of the Braves farm system is the pitching staff, which could be filled with any combination of Braves prospects.
Now the last piece of the puzzle is Shea Langeliers — an elite defensive prospect with offensive upside. Hopefully, William Contreras can polish his game as well to create a great catching tandem in a league where good catchers come at a premium.
The signing of Travis d’Arnaud to a two year $16 million contract will provide a nice stopgap for these prospects to develop.