This morning Baseball America shared their yearly ranking of every MLB organization's farm system. Once a top unit of these rankings, the Atlanta Braves have been consistently penciled toward the basement in the recent installments.
This year is no different as the Braves are a far cry away from top farm systems like the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Braves' farm system found themselves listed at #28 according to Baseball America. The 2025 ranking is down two spots from their no. 26 ranking in 2024. Atlanta last ranked in BA's top half in 2021, when they landed at no. 6.
Despite their low farm system ranking, the Braves are still set up for success
Normally ranking toward the bottom in four consecutive seasons in team farm system rankings would spell doom for the team's future. However, the Braves really earned this ranking with the success they have created at the Major League level. Ronald Acuna Jr., Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, Spencer Strider, and so many more were all rising prospects at one time.
Atlanta is aggressive with their promotions perhaps moreso than any other team in baseball other than the Angels who may be insane. In some organizations established stars like Michael Harris may not have made his debut until 2024. However, the Braves jumped Harris II directly from Double-A, and he went on to win the NL Rookie of the Year award. Last season Spencer Schwellenbach had pitched just 13 innings above High-A before the Braves called him up for a chance to stick in the big league rotation.
It's clear the Braves have hit on prospects recently, even to the point where they got Major League production before some have even reached high-end prospect status. As a bonus, many of these young stars are already locked up to long-term deals to keep the winning window in Atlanta open for a long time.
However the Braves land toward the bottom of these rankings because of the lack of quantity in their current crop of prospects. As for the 2025 prospects who are hoping to make that jump, Drake Baldwin and AJ Smith-Shawver were listed as strong headliners for this group.
Plenty of other arms like Hurston Waldrep, Drue Hackenburg, Jhancarlos Lara fill up a pitching dominated team prospect list. Then you get to the group of exciting pitchers like 2024 first round pick Cam Caminiti, Owen Murphy, and JR Ritchie, all of which haven't pitched above High-A ball.
Where the Braves system is lacking is the depth in potential star position players and Baseball Amercica said as much for their low-ranking reasoning. This is where the international free agent restrictions really handcuffed Atlanta. The Braves have made some splashes in IFA since the penalties subsided, but they really need recent signings like Jose Perdomo, Luis Guanipa, and Diego Benitez to make leaps in 2025.
Atlanta needs to continue to find gems in each June draft, and get some hits on the IFA signings for the future rankings of the Braves farm to rise. However, as many young stars as fans have seen come up over the past half decade we shouldn't be too concerned with where the farm system currently ranks in the public eye.