Tomahawk Take’s Atlanta Braves Prospect Rankings: 20-16

19. Victor Vodnik

Personal Rank: 18

Victor Vodnik came to the Braves in the 14th round of the 2018 MLB draft from Rialto High School in California. The flamethrower has a ton of potential, but unfortunately carries a ton of injury concern.

That was prevalent in 2021, as Vodnik got the nod to start in AA Mississippi. Injuries limited Vodnik to only 33 innings in AA and a bunch of mixed results.

Overall, Vodnik started 11 games and pitched to a 5.35 ERA, 4.86 FIP, and 4.03 xFIP. He struck out 27.3% of batters but walked 14.7% of guys faced. Vodnik started the season great, with a 2.57 ERA combined with 19 strikeouts in his first 14 innings.

However, the injury caused him to only pitch 19 more innings, and a few bad performances really hurt his overall performance. He did get work in the Arizona Fall League, but it was a mixed bag of results. A 5.70 ERA across 23.2 innings.

Vodnik has arguably one of the highest ceilings in the organization. The problem is he cannot seem to harness that talent. He shows flashes of brilliance and then follows it up with two or three rough outings.

His fastball is strong, clocking in the upper 90s. He also features a nasty slider that can be trouble for any hitter. The issue is he cannot always throw it for strikes consistently.

He does feature a third pitch, a changeup, but most scouting reports view it as a work in progress.

The profile screams future back end of the bullpen guy if starting fails. The fastball/slider combo would be lethal in one inning outings. If he can control himself.

If he stays healthy, he shows promise as a starter. It will surprise no one to see him fly up the rankings by the All-Star break. It also will not shock anyone if he falls down rankings.

He should start back in Mississippi and will need to start showing signs of consistency in 2022.