5. George Lombard – 144 Games (-0.9 rWAR)
Catcher George Lombard was an unranked high school catcher when the Braves took him in the second round of the 1994 draft. He’s on the list because the Braves paid him more than they paid 50th-ranked Corey Pointer, selected ahead of him, and only $75K less than their first-round pick, 27th-ranked Jacob Shumate, coincidentally taken at 27th, to tempt him to skip college. They should have saved their money and selected A.J. Pierzynski, who went to the Twins 10 picks later for less money.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Lombard was a power-hitting high school player the Braves believed they could grab early and develop into an everyday player, but it didn't work. He eventually hit well in the minors, but this bat never played well with Atlanta, and by this time, Javy Lopez was that guy. His claim to fame is hitting the first home run by an American player in China during an MLB tour in 2008.
Lombard went on to a successful career as a coach, so it wasn't all bad news for him.
4. Andy Marte – 7 Seasons (1.0 rWAR)
The Braves signed the then 16-year-old Andy Marte as an international free agent, and he took an express trip through the minors, hitting well at every level and noted as a top-50 prospect from 2003-2016. He was blocked at third by Chipper, but had he hit well, the Braves would have found a place for his bat.
He was traded to Boston in December 2005 for Edgar Renteria, and Boston almost immediately flipped him to Cleveland as part of an eight-player swap. He played for Cleveland for five seasons but never adjusted to Major League pitching.
Number 3: Mike Kelly – 6 Seasons (2.0 rWAR)
Mike Kelly was ranked baseball’s number 2 prospect, and the Braves selected him with the second pick of the 1991 draft. Kelly earned his national ranking by batting .376, hitting 21 homers for Arizona State, and winning the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's best college player in his senior year.
He was ranked as baseball’s number 19 prospect entering 1992 and continued to play at a high level as he rapidly climbed through the Braves system, finding himself ranked 34 in the spring of 1993 and 58 entering 1994.
Kelly flashed an .806 OPS in 30 games scattered across 1994 but slipped badly in 1995, and the Braves sent him to the Reds for Chad Fox and a PTBNL that miraculously became Ray King on June 11.
The Reds coaxed another small-sample-size set of numbers from him in 1997 and traded him to the Rays for Dmitri Young after the season. The Rays sent him to the Rockies in early 1999, but he continued to fail to hit even within the friendly confines of Coors Field. He kicked around the minors until 2004 without returning to the majors.