For the uninitiated, sports card collecting has gotten significantly more complicated in recent years. One development has been the emergence of "Bowman 1sts," which are cards of prospects that are considered by many to be a player's "true" rookie card. Well, 2026 Bowman Baseball releases in less than two weeks, and Atlanta Braves fans will be able to chase after a pair of exciting hitting prospects, although the omission of another remains a real head-scratcher.
Looking at the Bowman checklist, the two names that really matter for the Braves are Eric Hartman and Owen Carey. Hartman has been one of the bigger surprises (or at least his power, anyway) in the Braves' minor league system thus far, and Carey was off to a solid start before he got hurt. Both are very worthy candidates to do a little bit of speculation on for collectors.
However, it is deeply weird that 2025 Braves second-round pick Alex Lodise is not among those who are included in 2026's first installment of Bowman.
Braves fans will be able to collect Owen Carey and Eric Hartman soon, but Alex Lodise remains elusive
Lodise checks a lot of boxes as both a prospect and a collecting target. The Braves need position player talent, and collectors certainly prefer bats over arms, and Lodise was one of the better hitters in college baseball last year and is off to a solid, if unexciting, start to his first full pro season. Seeing that Lodise was held out of 2025 Bowman Draft wasn't that weird, but not including him in 2026 Bowman instead is a puzzling choice by Topps.
That said, the timing of Hartman and Carey's baseball card debuts is pretty ideal for Atlanta fans. Outside of diehard Braves prospect followers, neither prospect is particularly well-known yet, so there is a decent chance that those who want to get in on the ground floor with these two should be able to do so in a somewhat affordable way. If Carey returns from injury strong and Hartman keeps hitting like he is, their prices won't stay that way.
As for Lodise, time will tell when we will finally get his first licensed Braves card, although 2026 Bowman Chrome (which will likely release this fall) is a strong guess. If you are into sports card collecting and/or just want to learn more about it, FanSided just launched a collecting site called Grading on the Curve that has collecting experts/addicts (including yours truly) looking at the latest sports news through the lens of collecting, as well as breaking down the goings-on in the hobby. We just launched the site, so make sure to go over to GotC and read one or a dozen articles beginning to end to help us out.
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