Prospecting in baseball is a huge gamble. Only about 10%-15% of all minor league baseball players end up as a Major League player. This goes for the top prospects in each system too. The Atlanta Braves have had several prospects who were ranked #1 in the system by various outlets over the years who did not work as well as they would have hoped and several prospects who were not in their top-30 that have become starters in the big leagues. It truly is a hit or miss (pun intended) game when it comes to prospects.
With that being said, the Braves had seven different prospects who were ranked #1 in the system by MLB.com from 2011-2020. Some we remember and some we'd like to forget. Ranking these seven is an interesting exercise in seeing how accurate not only MLB.com can be in player assessment but the Braves scouting and development as well. Without further ado, here is our rankings of the Braves' top prospects from 2011-2020.
Ranking the Braves' previous top prospects from between 2011-2020
7. Cristian Pache - 2020
Cristian Pache leads us off as the lowest ranked Braves prospect of the 2010's. The top prospect in the Braves system in 2020 was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2015 and was a VERY highly touted prospect. Baseball America and MLB.com had him listed within their top-25 international free agent prospects in the class of 2015.
Pache was always known to be an elite defensive center fielder with the bat being a work in progress. His best minor league season was 2019 when he hit .277/.340/.462 with 12 home runs, 36 doubles, and 9 triples. Many people in the system thought the bat had finally caught up to the glove so Pache was promoted in 2020 at just 21 years old.
Pache, unfortunately, has not panned out. He has spent parts of six seasons in the Major Leagues and has bounced around to six different teams. He has never figured out how to hit Major League pitching as he has a career batting average of just .181 with a .514 OPS in 618 career plate appearances.
6. Jose Peraza - 2015
Next is a player who never even played a Major League game for the Atlanta Braves. Jose Peraza was listed as the Braves best prospect in 2015 after a stellar season in 2014 where he hit .339/.364/.441 with a very impressive 60 stolen bases in 110 games played. 2014 marked back to back years for Peraza with 60+ stolen bases and that is reflected by his 75 graded speed on the 20-80 scale according to MLB.com. In 2015 he was off to another stellar start hitting .294/.318/.379 in 96 games for the Gwinnett Braves. Peraza was then used as a feature piece in the trade that sent he and Alex Wood to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Hector Olivera.
Pera got his first taste of the Major Leagues in 2015 before being traded again to the Cincinnati Reds. This is where Peraza had his best years as a Utility player hitting .324 in 2016 in 256 plate appearances then hitting .288 in 2018 in 683 plate apearances. The biggest issue with Peraza was the lack of power and the lack of ability to stick at shorstop long term. He suffered a few hamstring injuries as well which sapped some of his speed that he needed to succeed. Overall, he has had a good career with some success at the major league level.
5. Lucas Sims - 2014
The pride of Snellville, Georgia and former first round pick, Lucas Sims has carved out a decent career for himself as a relief pitcher, but he was a starter as he was coming up through the Braves system. His 2013 was electric going 12-4 with a 2.62 ERA, 134 strikeouts, in 116.2 innings pitched as a 19 year old in Single-A earning him top prospect status heading into 2014. He took a few steps back in the following years, but seemed to right the ship in 2017 going 7-4 with a 3.75 ERA, 132 strikeouts, in 115.1 innings pitched earning his first MLB call-up debuting the same game as Ozzie Albies. He struggled mightily in his first stint going 3-6 with a 5.62 ERA.
Sims arrived at Spring Training in 2018 with a real shot at claiming the fifth starter job but ultimately losing out and returning to Gwinnett where he posted a 2.84 ERA in 73 innings pitched. He and Mat Wisler were then traded at the 2018 trade deadline for Adam Duvall. Sims would go on to have his best season as a Major Leaguer in 2020 posting a 2.45 ERA in 25.2 innings pitched. 2020 marked the first year in his career he focused solely on relieving and he has been most recently with the Chicago White Sox in 2026 posting a 4.50 ERA in only 10 innings.
4. Michael Soroka - 2019
Michael Soroka is the one that broke my heart. As of 2026 he is looking like he is FINALLY back on track in his career, but it has been a rollercoaster to get here. Soroka was drafted 28th overall by the Braves in 2015. He was the comp pick after Ervin Santana signed with the Twins in the 2014 offseason. From day one Soroka was proving how good of a pick he was breezing through rookie ball with a 3.18 ERA in 34 innings pitched at just 17 years old. He was brought up to Single-A Rome the next year going 9-9 with a 3.02 ERA in 143 innings. 2017 was his true breakout season however when, at just 19 years old, he had a 2.75 ERA and a fantastic 5.4 BB% in 153.2 innings at Double-A. He was getting ground balls at a rate over 45%, not walking anyone, and limiting runs.
Soroka got his call-up on May 1st, 2018 but hit the injured list for the first time in his career not even a month later with a shoulder injury. By 2019, Soroka had become the youngest Brave ever to be an All-Star and finished sixth in NL Cy Yong voting that year. Coming into 2020, Soroka was the youngest Brave ever to be named the Opening Day starter and only three games into the season he tore his Achillies tendon missing the rest of the season along with the 2021 season. He was expected to be able to pitch at the end of the 2021 season, but while walking completely re-tore his Achilles costing him the 2022 season as well. He worked his way back at the end of 2023 and was clearly rusty from not pitching in two years having a 6.40 ERA in 32.1 innings pitched.
After the 2023 season, Soroka was traded to the Chicago White Sox in the Aaron Bummer deal, going 0-10 in 2024. In 2026 he looks to be rounding back into his old form. He pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks and had his best year since his rookie year going 9-5 with a 3.41 ERA and making 21 starts. He is currently a free agent again and could be a good fit in Atlanta if all goes right.
3. Julio Teheran - 2011-2013
Continuing the trend of highly ranked right-handed pitchers in the Braves system, we have Julio Teheran starting our top-3. Julio was signed out of Colombia in 2007 at just 16 years old. As soon as 2010 he was ranked by Baseball America as the Braves third best prospect with Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman being the only two ahead of him. Starting in 2011, Teheran would be ranked the Braves top prospect all the way until 2013 when he was called up for good.
Starting in 2013, Teheran pitched at least 170 innings with an ERA+ of 100 or better in five out of seven total seasons as the Braves "ace". He was an All-Star in 2014 and 2016 and led the majors in starts in 2015. Teheran had a phenomenal career as a Brave with an ERA+ of 110 in nine years to go along with a 3.67 ERA. He averaged 2.24 WAR per year in Atlanta having a WAR over four twice. The Braves teams Teheran pitched on were notoriously bad for the franchise, but Julio just seemed to stand out and show up start after start.
For quite a few years there, the only things to watch the Braves for were to see Julio Teheran and Freddie Freeman play. These included three straight 90+ loss seasons from 2015-2017. Overall, Julio was a stalwart for the 2010's Atlanta Braves when few others were. As of 2026, Teheran is retired from Major League Baseball, but we will always remember his contributions in Braves Country.
2. Dansby Swanson - 2016-2017
Now for my wife's favorite player, Dansby Swanson. What more can be said about Dansby? World Series Champion? Check! Play shortstop for your hometown team? Check! Be a #1 overall pick? Check! NCAA National Champion? Check! Dansby Swanson was beloved throughout his tenure in Atlanta by fans and became one of the best overal shortstops in ALL of baseball from 2016-2022. After being picked #1 overall in the 2015 draft (originally drafted in the 38th round by the Rockies in 2012) Dansby was traded to the Braves for Shelby Miller only six months later. He only played 127 games in the minor leagues between 2015-2016 and was called up to the Braves, making his Big League debut on August 17th.
In just 38 games, Swanson put up 1.2 WAR while hitting .302 with three homers and an .803 OPS. He struggled in 2017 though having the worst year of his career while bouncing back in 2018 and never looking back. Swanson finished 12th in MVP voting, while winning a Gold Glove in 2022 leading the NL in games played at 160 and finished 18th in MVP voting in 2020 while playing all 60 games that year. In 2019, he had a postseason OPS of .977 and in 2020 his playoff OPS was .889. Swanson showed up when it mattered for the Braves both offensively and defensively, but there is one more player on this list just slightly more decorated than Dansby...
1. Ronald Acuña Jr. - 2018
MVP. 40-70. 5X All-Star. Rookie of the Year. 3X Silver Slugger. Ronald Acuña Jr. has led the league in runs scored twice, hits once, stolen bases twice, on-base-percentage and OPS once each. His career OPS+ of 139 is 11th in Braves franchise history among players with at least 1,000 plate appearances. Only Acuña Jr. and Hank Aaron have 200+ home runs and 200+ in a Braves uniform. He is the fastest player ever, by games played, to get that 200-200 milestone. The list of accolades goes on and on for the player some have said is the most talented player to ever wear the Atlanta Braves uniform.
Acuña Jr. was signed as a 16 year old out of Venezuela in 2014, he really burst onto the scene after his 2017 season where he had video game numbers; .325/.374/.522 slash line with 21 home runs, 31 doubles, eight triples, and 44 stolen bases. Acuña Jr. simply DOMINATED and only got better the higher up he went. He was called up in 2018 and continued his success winning Rookie of the Year honors that year as well as finishing 12th in MVP voting. 2019 proved to be even better as he hit 41 homeruns and stole an NL high 37 bases to go along with his .883 OPS.
Unfortunately, 2020 is where the injury bug started. Acuña Jr. missed 14 games in 2020, 80 games in 2021, 43 games in 2022 (mostly due to the ACL tear he suffered in 2021), 113 games in 2024, 67 games in 2025 (after tearing his other ACL in 2024), and 55 games in 2026. Altogether Ronald has missed a total of 372 games since the start of 2020. The only thing stopping Ronald Acuña Jr. from being the best overall player in Braves history is his own body.
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