Atlanta Braves: Top 5 busts as former no. 1 prospects

Andy Marte -1.0 rWAR (7 seasons)

Andy Marte was a lock to be a major-league stud. He was rated as the third overall prospect by Baseball Prospectus in 2004 and was crowned the number one prospect the following year. It’s that long fall from such a lofty perch that marks him as our number 1 bust among all the numbers 1’s.

Marte led a group of four Braves’ prospects in Baseball Prospectus’ top 50 of 2005. Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur had pathways to playing time, but Marte played third base.

The Braves moved the talented youngster to the Red Sox for Edgar Renteria. The Red sox flipped Marte to the Indians in a seven-player exchange. The Indians believed they had their third basemen of the future. Marte was a sure bet.

Unfortunately for Marte, things never quite clicked at the big-league level. In parts of seven seasons, he finished with a .218/.276/.358 slash line. His OPS+ sits at a disappointing 69. He finished with 21 career homers in 307 major league games.

He did have a really nice moment in 2014. Marte hadn’t played in a major league game in four years but he never gave up. The Diamondbacks gave him a shot on July 31, 2014. In his first at-bat since 2010 Marte blasted a two-run shot to left field to give his team two-run lead.

Tragically, in 2017, Marte died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic, where he was playing winter league baseball. He may have never lived up to the hype that once followed him, but he never gave up on the game and was a ballplayer until the day he died.

Best Season

In 2010, Marte played in 80 games for the Indians and slashed .229/.298/.382 with 5 HR, 7 2B, and an OPS+ of 89.