Our long nightmare is finally over. Other than the short-season leagues, which don't get started for a while, all four of the minor league levels for the Atlanta are now underway, and that means we have prospect performances to over-analyze and pick apart. It is truly the most wonderful time of the year.
It is important not to over- or undersell the Braves' farm system right now, especially given the small sample very early in the season. While there are some promising results to go over, we'll need to get a larger sample of games in before we can draw conclusions about any of these guys. That said, it was certainly an interesting week for Braves prospects.
Here is the latest goings on with the Braves' prospects over the last week
Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers
The calls to bring Didier Fuentes back up to the majors are probably not going to get any quieter, given his performance thus far. After striking out seven batters on Friday, it feels like he is tantalizingly close to replacing the terrible two-some that is Martin Perez and Jose Suarez. However, he wasn't overly efficient in this start and only managed 72 pitches across 3.2 innings, so Atlanta may opt to build up his pitch count even more.
JR Ritchie put together five scoreless innings against Round Rock, but walks remain an issue through his first two starts of the season. Things on the offensive side of the ball at Triple-A are much less exciting, although Jim Jarvis and Aaron Schunk are off to very decent starts to 2026. Nacho Alvarez Jr. has been less fortunate with a .583 OPS through his first seven games this season.
Double-A Columbus Clingstones
The highlight from the start of the Double-A season was, without question, Owen Murphy's start. The former first-round pick punched out 10 batters in his 2026 debut and ended up giving up two runs on three hits and two walks. Columbus still ended up losing the game because the bullpen imploded in spectacular fashion, but Murphy still looked good.
The same cannot be said for Garrett Baumann. Coming into the season, Baumann was flagged by many as a breakout prospect candidate in 2026. Unfortunately, he did not get out to a great start to the season as he gave up nine runs (seven earned) in just 3.1 innings of work. Not ideal. There was little to report on the offensive side of the ball, but that is not an area on the Clingstones roster that features much in the way of prospect talent at the moment.
High-A Rome Emperors
John Gil remains the story here, and he did not disappoint during the first series of the year, but we already covered that separately and won't linger as a result. For those who have been crossing their fingers and toes that Isaiah Drake would figure things out, he has come into the season with good news. With two homers already and just two strikeouts through his first three games of 2026, Drake is doing exactly what fans hoped he would. Colby Jones played well in the opening series as well, while intriguing 2025 draft pick Cody Miller only managed one hit.
On the pitching side, Cam Caminiti was the headliner. While he did give up three runs on three hits and two walks in 4.2 innings of work, he also struck out six batters. Overall, his first start was a solid starting point to build off of. The rest of Rome's pitching staff pitched pretty well, but it is also clear that the Braves are not done building most of them up, as going three to four innings has been the max outside of Caminiti.
Low-A Augusta GreenJacket
Augusta's pitching staff had a rough start to the season as Augusta got swept, and there were true failures in the rotation as well as the bullpen. Augusta doesn't have much actual prospect depth on the pitching side at the moment, though that could change as young arms finish getting ready down at extended spring training.
The lineup is a different story. Not only is Day One draft pick Alex Lodise off to a strong start to the season, but we are finally seeing what top international signing Luis Guanipa and overslot pick Nick Montgomery can do at the plate. All three players finished the first series of the year showing the ability to impact the ball early on. The results were a bit more mixed for Tate Southisene and Conor Essenburg, but the only real red flag there was that both players struck out way too much.