Do Atlanta Braves Have a Pitching Development Problem?

With the recent struggles from top Atlanta Braves pitching prospects, some are starting to wonder if there is a development problem in the system.

Not that long ago the Atlanta Braves had built a stockpile of talented pitching prospects that made every other team in the league envious.

Looking back at the top 10 prospects for the Braves at the end of the 2018 season it consisted of seven starting pitchers.

That list included Mike Soroka, Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson, Touki Toussaint, Luiz Gohara, Bryse Wilson, and Kolby Allard.

Of those seven, only Soroka has gone on to have consistent big league success so far. And Anderson is the only one yet to make his big league debut.

Gohara is just a sad situation as I think he was dealing with some things off the field that led to him struggling on the field.

Wright, Touki, and Wilson have been up-and-down but given several chances to prove themselves at the big league level.

So far none of them have proven they have what it takes, but I’m certainly not ready to give up on any of them.

Allard looked terrible in his limited action with the Braves but has been solid since he was traded to Texas. And by solid I mean a fifth starter at best, which I think the Braves would take right now.

Perhaps most of this conversation was sparked by Lucas Sims. A former first-round pick of the Braves who was traded to the Reds after never living up to his potential with Atlanta.

He posted a 4.60 ERA for the Reds in 2019 mostly out of the bullpen with 57 strikeouts in 43 innings.

This year he has a spectacular 0.96 ERA in 9.1 innings with 13 strikeouts.

Now, let’s keep in mind that most of his good work has come out of the bullpen, which is not what the Braves were looking for when they drafted him 21st overall.

I’m sure if the Braves decided to make Wilson, Touki, or Wright full-time bullpen guys their level of production would go up.

Same that we saw with Sean Newcomb last year when he went from being a starter to a reliever.

The bottom line for me, is I don’t think there is a development problem in the Braves system with starting pitching. For one, I don’t have the kind of first-hand knowledge to be able to make that claim, and it’s likely none of you do either.

What I do know is that the Braves window of contention came a lot earlier than they expected. And they’ve had to ask a lot from their young pitching prospects who were probably thrust into big situations a lot earlier than they should have been.

I think Kyle Wright and Bryse Wilson starting the 2019 season in the Braves rotation, on the road in a hostile environment, was very detrimental to their career paths.

That’s not something that should have been asked of them, but the Braves didn’t have any other options at the time.

You look at a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers who have been able to continue to contend while bringing up young pitching prospects.

They’ve been able to ease them into big league roles by mostly starting them out in the bullpen.

That’s what they did with Julio Urias, Walker Buehler, and now Dustin May and all three of them are a big part of their current starting rotation.

By doing that they allowed those pitchers to gain confidence at the big league level by having successful, short bullpen outings.

I think the Braves have tried to do that with Wright, Wilson, and Touki but injuries have forced their hand to move them into the starting rotation sooner than they would have liked.

Now, at the end of the day, it’s up to these players to figure out how to pitch at the big league level.

The coaches can tell them all the right things, but until they go out there and do it — and believe they can do it — nothing is going to change.

They can look in their own dugout for a great example as Max Fried is someone who came up and spent some time in the bullpen where he had some success and eventually carried that over into a starting role.

Atlanta was hoping that would happen with Newcomb, but I honestly think Newcomb is too much of a headcase right now.

Again, I don’t personally believe there is a development problem in the big leagues. I think you’re lucky to have two guys like Soroka and Fried to come out of that great crop of prospects to be top of the rotation starters.

The problem is that the other prospects on that list aren’t even looking like back of the rotation starters right now.

I’m not putting this on the coaching because we all can see the talent is there. I really think the biggest issue with our prospects not making that transition to the big leagues is between the ears — and that’s not something coaching can fix.