While the big league team is going through some ups and down, the Atlanta Braves' farm system is in a weird spot at the moment. Years of quick promotions of top talent and being near the bottom of the draft pick order in addition to some high profile misses have left Atlanta's talent pipeline very shallow and somewhat lacking.
Part of that perception is that there were some prospects that seemed to have the right tools to work with as professional baseball players, but just have fallen off the radar for one reason or another. However, that doesn't mean that they are gone or have no hope of turning into something for the Braves.
Here are some Braves prospects you may have forgotten that are off to great starts this season
The focus here is going to be on position player prospects because the Braves have a real need for some bats to develop here soon and we still don't have a great sample size on pitchers anyways. There is a range of guys here from players that were always fringe prospects at best to those that commanded big time bonuses when they signed. The one thing they all have in common is they are all playing quite well to start the 2025 season.
Cody Milligan
For a couple years, Milligan was criminally underrated. He can play almost anywhere on the field and was hitting at every stop along the way in the minors. Unfortunately, some injuries cost him a bunch of playing time and with very little in-game power, the step down in his performance the last couple of years seemingly ended any chance that he would make it to the majors despite his speed and versatility.
However, Milligan looks like a new man in 2025. Through his first 18 games this season, Milligan has a .278/.365/.426 line with his slugging percentage narrowly being the best of his career up until now. Being at Triple-A, there is a shot that Milligan ends up on the Braves' bench as a super utility player, but it does feel like it is more likely that he gets packaged in a trade at some point instead given the lack of playing time available with Atlanta.
Ambioris Tavarez
Once the Braves were emerging from international free agency jail, one of the first "big" international signings they made was shortstop Ambioris Tavarez who commanded a $1.5 million price tag. Unfortunately, his time in professional baseball since then has been entirely forgettable as his hit tool didn't develop as was hoped and multiple swing changes did little to help.
Thankfully, it feels like Tavarez has figured something out in 2025. So far, he is slashing .321/.424/.411 in high-A and he has mercifully cut his strikeout rate down a bit. He is repeating the level which does matter and he is still swinging and missing more than one would like, but Tavarez at least looks interesting now as opposed to a guy that was hitting around .200 with little hope of amount to much.
Isaiah Drake
When the Braves went overslot to draft Isaiah Drake in the fifth round of the 2023 draft, it certainly raised some eyebrows. No one denied that Drake had loads of tools and athleticism, but he was seen as a very raw hitter that would need a lot of time. That tracked with what we saw his first couple of seasons as a pro as he struck out at an alarming rate and mostly failed to impact the ball at all.
Time will tell if Drake can finally start to take advantage of his physical abilities, but he is off to a pretty good start this season with a .717 OPS and .404 OBP. He is going to have to start hitting for power eventually to turn into "a dude", but there has been real improvement here with Drake thus far.
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