Braves Latest Prospect Rankings Gets Much-needed Turnover

The Athletic recently released their top 10 prospects for the Atlanta Braves and they gave it a much-needed makeover with some newcomers at the top.

There is no question the Atlanta Braves prospects rankings have become a little stale in recent years.

Certainly, the pandemic is part of that with no minor league season in 2020, but also because of the wave of prospects that were promoted between 2017-2019.

We haven’t really seen a lot of impact from the minors since Ian Anderson’s promotion in 2020.

Since then, it’s pretty much been Cristian Pache and Drew Waters at the top of any prospect list.

And with the Braves picking at the back of the first-rounds of the draft, they have really grabbed anyone that’s going to shoot to the top of a prospect ranking.

But now that we’ve had an (almost) full season of Minor League Baseball, we have a better evaluation of some of these players.

Unfortunately, Pache and Waters haven’t developed as quickly as we hoped.

That’s led to David O’Brien of The Athletic mixing things up at the top of his prospect list (paid subscription required).

One move that’s pretty obvious and is probably overdue, is Michael Harris II being the top Braves prospect.

I really think the hype on him has swung too far in the other direction at this point. But he is the most talented prospect in the system right now, but 2022 will be huge for him to see how does with the jump to Double-A.

Shea Langelliers at two makes a lot of sense as well. He’s the last top 10 pick the Braves have made and has looked the part since being drafted. He’s elite defensively and showing power at the plate.

At this point, those are the two best prospects in the system, and it’s a decent-sized gap after them.

Kyle Muller showed some promise during his debut in 2021 and there is some upside there.

The same is true of Spencer Strider; although I wonder if his stuff holds up as a starter or if he becomes an elite reliever. Either way, I’ll think he’ll have a big impact at the big league level.

One name I was glad to see DOB include in his top 10 is Jesse Franklin V. He got off to a dreadful start in 2021 but was one of the best bats in the system in the second half.

I’m looking forward to seeing how he follows that up in 2022, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he jumps up even more next year.

The premier talent in the system isn’t there anymore — because it’s all at the big league level — but there are some newcomers making noise and shaking up the rankings.