Braves Prospects to Watch as Minor League Season Begins

The time has finally arrived for Minor League Baseball games to be played again and the Atlanta Braves have a lot of exciting talent to watch. 

Just like for every other team, last year was a development loss for a lot of young players in the Atlanta Braves farm system.

We’ve gone over a year without seeing a single at-bat from a lot of great up-and-coming talent in this league.

And yes, I know some have been doing work at alternate camps or extended spring training, but nothing that comes with a box score.

I can’t wait to pull up my MiLB app every night and read through the box scores of the Braves affiliates to see how some of my favorite prospects are doing.

The minors are special to a lot of baseball fans and something you don’t get to enjoy with other major sports.

Being able to watch a player rise through the system and following their journey as they make it to the big leagues is one of the most enjoyable parts of being a baseball fan.

In Birmingham, I can remember going to watch Yermin Mercedes spray hits all over the field for the Barons wondering who this guy was. And now I see him at the big league level doing the same thing for the White Sox.

He went from being a virtually unknown minor leaguer to one of the most exciting players to start the 2021 season.

It’s stories like his that make baseball so much better than any other sport.

The names I’m about to mention probably aren’t unknown to Braves fans like Mercedes was to pretty much everyone, but these are players you should be checking the box scores for every night as the Minor League Baseball season gets underway on May 4.

Braves Minor League Players to Watch in 2021

Michael Harris — He was the talk of Spring Training and will get the most attention this year. He’s just 20-years-old but people are already dreaming about the potential. Can he build off the success he had at the lower levels in 2019 and doing against better competition? We’ll see.

Drew Waters — Everyone knows Drew by now. Some already think he’s a bust, others think he’s a future All-Star. The one thing I know for sure, he has to show better discipline at the plate in 2021 if he has any hopes of cracking the roster next season.

Shea Langeliers and William Contreras — We’ve already got a taste of Contreras at the big league level. But I’m curious to see how both of these catchers progress this season and if they’ll be able to take over at the big league level as soon as next year.

Braden Shewmake — Dansby Swanson is only under contract through next season. Is Shewmake his replacement at shortstop? I don’t believe so, but maybe he can make a believer of me this year.

What starting pitcher will breakout? — The Braves have a number of young arms at the top of their system, but none of them are really exciting to me — or at least not to the leave of a Mike Soroka, Max Fried, and Ian Anderson.

But they all have the potential and stuff for a breakout year. We’re talking about guys like Kyle Muller, Tucker Davidson, Jasseel De La Cruz, and Freddy Tarnok.

And then you can throw in the newly drafted guys in Jared Shuster, Bryce Elder, and Spencer Strider.

If just one of them can put it together and become a top of the rotation arm, that would be huge for the Braves going forward.

And there are some other hitters on down the list like Trey Harris, Jesse Franklin, and Bryce Ball that I’m excited to see in 2021.

But for the sake of just reading off every prospect in the system, those are the ones I’m most excited about and the players I’ll be looking for in the box’ every night.

Which prospects are you most excited to see for the Braves this season? Let us know in the comments.