Atlanta Braves Announce Signing Six Draft Picks; Add Another UDFA
The Atlanta Braves continue to sign their draft picks from the 2023 draft. The pool of talent continues to grow for a farm system that has been depleted in recent years.
The Atlanta Braves are close to wrapping their signings from the 2023 Rule 4 Draft while continuing to add Undrafted Free Agents. The Braves now have 19 of their 21 selections under contract and added another Undrafted Free Agent as well.
A couple of days ago, I had no new information on rounds 11-20 other than the early signings of Will Verdung and Mitch Ferris I reported last week. All that changed when yesterday afternoon’s Baseball America’s 2023 Draft Tracker showed that the Atlanta Braves had 18 of their selections from the draft in the fold.
It’s likely these players signed earlier, and the club held news for one announcement over the weekend. However it happened, here’s the list as of the morning of July 19.
Atlanta Braves newest confirmed signings from the draft are:
- Position Player Bonus
- OF Jace Grady 150,000
- RHP David Rodriguez 150,000
- RHP Isaac Gallegos 100,000
- SS Cam Magee 150,000
- LHP Riley Frey 115,000
- C Will King 150,000
Only Kansas State second baseman Brady Day and Ohio State outfielder Kade Kern remain unsigned.
Atlanta Braves 11th round: Jace Grady
Grady is a 5’-11, 182-pound switch-hitting corner outfielder out of Bryce Ball’s alma mater Dallas Baptist. Grady batted 337/.422/.525/.947, including 43 doubles, five triples, and 26 homers in 784 PA., with 108 walks and 135 strikeouts over his last three seasons.
He showed a good eye for the strike zone as well, averaging a 13.8% walk rate with a 17.2% K-rate over that span and walking 45 times while striking out 42 in his final season for Dallas Baptist.
Grady played for Cotuit of the Cape Cod Summer League in 2021, batting .346/.378/.539/.917 (27-78), including three doubles and 12 homers.
Baseball America made Grady a top-200 prospect in 2022. Their scouts suggest he’ll be a gap-to-gap, line-drive hitter with occasional power.
…consistently been a good fastball hitter and continued to handle 92-plus mph velocity in 2023, with a 1.179 OPS against those pitches in a 131-pitch sample. He’s a solid-average runner who should be a fine defender in the outfield...(He’s) a better fit for left field…
Atlanta Braves 15th Round Pick: David Rodriguez
The Atlanta Braves went way out into the weeds to find David Rodriguez, but it’s easy to see why they wanted him.
Rodriguez pitched the 2019 Vacaville High School Bulldogs to a Division I championship, throwing six innings of one-run ball on the way to beating Jesuit in the championship game.
He planned to spend two years at a JUCO, then move to a four-year school in 2020, but a torn UCL required replacement surgery, and he didn’t pitch again until the end of the 2021 JUCO season throwing only 2 /13 innings.
He returned with a vengeance for the 2022-2023 season, appearing in 18 games – 16 starts – throwing and102 innings with a 2.29 ERA, 0.970 WHIP. Opponents batted .220 when facing the 6’2-190 pound righty, largely because he struck out 102 of the 404 batters faced, walking only 13 and hitting one. That’s good for a 9.53 K/BB ratio. Even by JUCO standards, that’s an impressive season.
According to a post by Cecil Conley for The Reporter, Ohio State contacted Rodriguez offering a scholarship a week after the Atlanta Braves selected him, and he’d negotiated a signing bonus, but he chose the Braves.
Atlanta Braves 16th Round Pick: Isaac Gallegos
Isaac Gallegos graduated from Grants High School in Albuquerque and attended Trinidad State for two years before moving to the University of New Mexico for his junior year.
In his two years at Trinidad, Gallegos appeared in 31 games, including 13 starts, with a 15-7 record that included five complete games. The 6’3-205 pound right threw 152 innings at a 4.56 ERA. 1.30 WHIP, walking 54, and striking out 218.
In his only season with New Mexico, Gallegos appeared in 12 games – all starts – throwing 70 1/3 innings at a 4.35 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, striking out 60 and walking 32.
Atlanta Braves 18th Round Pick: Cam Magee
In 2018, the Braves drafted a glove-first shortstop from the University of Washington – A.J. Graffanino, who was out of baseball at the end of 2022. Cam Magee is the same kind of player. a glove-first utility man from Washington State whose bat wasn’t as good as Graffanino’s in PAC12 play. I wish Cam luck and hope he succeeds.
Atlanta Braves 19th Round Pick: Riley Frey
Riley Frey is a 6’1-185 pound lefty out of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. In his three years with The Panthers, Frey’s appeared in 44 games – 42 starts – posted a 12-21 record, and recorded one save. He pitched to a 4.23 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, striking out 239, walking 99, and throwing 28 wild pitches in his 249 IP.
While I can’t find a publicly available draft report, Perfect Game shows his fastball topping out at 89.5 in 2020. He may have increased velocity since that report, but from a distance with foggy goggles, it appears he’s a “pitchability lefty.”
Congratulations to New City native and former Clarkstown North catcher Will King on being drafted by the Atlanta Braves! ⚾ https://t.co/xRmzZLlG7K pic.twitter.com/PgbvkjskQ2
— Senator Bill Weber (@NYSenatorWeber) July 14, 2023
Atlanta Braves 20th Round Pick: Will King
With that many pitchers, you need more catchers, which leads up to the Braves' last selection of the draft, Will King.
Will King is a 5’9-190 pound RHH catcher out of Eastern Kentucky University – Richmond. In three seasons with EKU, King batted .306/.381/.518/.899 with 36 doubles, a triple, and 25 homers in 619 PA.
In its report on King’s selection, EKU highlighted a few of his career highlights.
- Led the team with a .364 BA in 2023
- Eighth in ASUN Conference BA and 13th is slugging percentage
- Threw out 41.2% of runners
- American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings Midwest All-Region Second Team selection
- Second-team All-ASUN Conference pick
He was also among the finalists for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award and the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award.
It isn’t easy to earn consideration for the Posey or Bragan awards and helped the Braves decide to make the selection, but King’s 41,2% theft prevention rate and bat made it easier.
Atlanta Braves Undrafted Free Agent: Utility Infielder Joe Olsavsky
The Braves signed Joe Olsavsky out of John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Olsavsky played shortstop and second base for The Blue Streaks in three seasons, batting .410/.510/.657/1.167 (171-471) with 15 homers, striking out 38 times and walking 66.
He was D3baseball.com’s Mideast Region Rookie of the Year, selected for the All-Mideast First Team, and for the ABCA/Rawlings Mideast All-Region Second Team in 2021
This season, he walked more often than he struck out (20-11), led the Ohio Athletic Conference with a .449 batting average, tied for first on the Blue Streaks with 16 doubles, and was second on the team with 43 RBI.
Olsavsky also pitched for John Carroll in relief in 2022and appeared in eight games for Elmira in the Perfect Game Collegiate League that summer, throwing 24 2/3 innings at a 3.65 ERA, 0.829 WHIP, striking out 24, and walking five.
That’s a Wrap
I understand that scouts provide the Atlanta Braves with a ton of information we may never hear about, but some of the Braves selections baffle me; everything in 2018 after Carter Stewart, for example.
College bats are pretty close to the bats you’ll see as a pro, which is why I didn’t understand Graffanino in 2018, and I don’t understand MaGee this year.
Olsavsky posted better numbers, albeit in a smaller conference. I have no way of knowing whether the difference in conferences makes his number the same as Magee’s or worse.
I don’t begrudge anyone for getting the best contract they can, but why give an unrated utility man such as Magee $150K?
These and other questions will not be answered when I write the final draft wrap-up.