If you have been following the Atlanta Braves' farm system for a while, you will remember how consequential some of disgraced former general manager John Coppolella's drafts were. His 2015 draft was on the good end of the spectrum as it brought in Kolby Allard, Michael Soroka, Austin Riley, AJ Minter, and even Evan Phillips who all ended up being top Braves prospects and/or contributed in the major leagues. However, his last two drafts before getting banned from baseball were far less fortunate.
If you are struggling to remember who the Braves picked in those drafts or you remember and those memories are not good in hindsight, you are far from alone. Despite some high picks and some high profile prospects being added, the 2016 and 2017 drafts were not kind to Atlanta to put it mildly.
In fact, with former top Braves prospect Freddy Tarnok heading over to Japan to try and salvage a career in baseball, those classes should probably be officially be classified as colossal failures.
The 2016 and 2017 MLB Drafts being busts set the Braves back years
Obviously we have the benefit of hindsight here and at the time, some of the Braves' picks were legitimately exciting and either just failed to develop and/or dealt with injuries or some other setback. However, it is still startling that from both of those draft classes (which were 40 rounds at the time) combined, there is exactly one player from them on the Braves' roster.
That player is Joey Wentz and him being with the organization at all only came to be because the Braves claimed him off waivers last season to reunite with him when their entire roster was on the trainer's table.
Now, not all of picks were completely worthless. Kyle Wright had a really good season in 2022 and helped the Braves win the 2021 World Series before his shoulder gave out. Ian Anderson was a similar story in that he showed signs of greatness before command issues and injuries derailed him. However, take a look at this list of players that the Braves picked in the top 5 rounds of those drafts.
- Ian Anderson - Elbow surgery, now a free agent
- Joey Wentz - most unremarkable MLB career, pitched well after Braves claimed him (yay!)
- Kyle Muller - Never developed command, pitching in Japan
- Brett Cumberland - Bounced from Atlanta to Baltimore and SF, retired in 2024
- Drew Harrington - flamed out after 51 appearances in the minors
- Bryse Wilson - put together perfectly reasonable career as journeyman swing man, free agent
- Jeremy Walker - made six appearances in the majors, now playing in independent ball
- Kyle Wright - figured things out, then shoulder went out. placed on waivers in 2025
- Drew Waters - quad-A player with the Royals
- Freddy Tarnok - just signed to play in Japan, 11 appearances total in the majors
- Troy Bacon - got quickly shifted to the bullpen in minors, last played pro baseball in 2023
- Bruce Zimmermann - saw playing time with the Orioles, 5.64 ERA in 39 appearances
That...is not great and is only a small snapshot. A lot of people like to blame the Braves picking low in the draft the last few years for the current state of their farm system or the international penalties that the aforementioned Coppolella played a big role in bringing down upon the Braves. However, the beginning of the downfall actually started before Alex Anthopoulos took the job with a pair of crummy draft classes.