Atlanta Braves Top 36 Prospects

Smith-Shawver was a two-sport star in high school who committed to Texas Tech for football (quarterback) and baseball. He was drafted as a long-term project with a big frame (6-foot-3, 205 pounds), present arm strength, and a loose, efficient arm action that portended secondary pitch development. Smith-Shawver began to throw harder pretty quickly after he got to pro ball, with his riding fastball parked in the 93-96 mph range for entire starts in 2023 and peaking above. The Braves augmented his release point a little bit, and it created more lateral action on his formerly velo-reliant slider than that pitch had in 2022. It was one of a few changes that allowed Smith-Shawver to dominate A-ball and reach the upper minors very quickly. He and the Braves also added a mid-70s rainbow curveball that has a shape that complements his fastball; it often has a little arm-side action on it that should help make it a weapon against lefties as Smith-Shawver gets feel for it.

Smith-Shawver spent most of 2023 at Triple-A Gwinnett, then got a five-start, six-game cup of coffee in Atlanta before making the Braves’ playoff roster as a reliever. He dealt with bad HR/FB luck at Gwinnett early in 2024 but looked fine from a stuff standpoint and made one big league start before he was shut down with an oblique strain in late May. Since exiting A-ball, his surface stats have left a bit to be desired (especially from a strike-throwing standpoint), but consider the context here: Smith-Shawver made the bigs less than two years after being drafted as a two-sport high school athlete. He did so while undergoing meaningful mechanical and repertoire tweaks, tweaks he is still sorting through (his changeup usage was way up this season before the injury). Smith-Shawver also checks all the visual scouting boxes. He is built and moves like a workhorse mid-rotation starter, with a huge stride down the mound and a loose, efficient arm action. He needs to find a more consistent release point to hit his ceiling, but he has all the characteristics of an athlete who will. Smith-Shawver may have some early-career speedbumps, but he could have a star peak during a career mostly spent as a mid-rotation starter.

Schwellenbach was a two-way star at Nebraska, the team’s starting shortstop for three years and their closer for one, and the 2021 John Olerud Award winner as the country’s best two-way player. He hit .282/.405/.423 in college and often worked multiple innings in relief. While he was viewed as a prospect on both sides of the ball, the teams most interested in Schwellenbach before the draft were the ones that thought he was only scratching the surface on the mound after having pitched for just a year in college. During his 2021 season at Nebraska, his fastball averaged 95 mph across most of the season but dipped down to 93 in his last two starts, and it was later determined that he needed Tommy John, which delayed his pro debut by a full year. Only when he was done rehabbing in 2023 did Schwellenbach begin his foray into starting. An IL stint (shoulder inflammation) limited him to 65 innings, but by the end of the season, he had stretched out to five and six innings per start and held mid-90s velocity the whole time. A hot start at High-A Rome in 2024 led to two quick promotions, first to Double-A Mississippi and then straight to Atlanta, where Schwellenbach has made three starts leading up to list publication.

Schwellenbach has had a one-tick velo bump so far in 2024 and has also added a cutter to his already robust repertoire. He employs a slider-heavy approach against righties and throws the kitchen sink at lefties. He doesn’t have dominant stuff right now, but you can project on some Schwellenbach’s weapons (the changeup and brand new cutter, especially) because he’s a good athlete who is new to starting. He’s reached the big leagues just about a year after he transitioned into a rotation, which is incredible. I wonder what kind of innings limit he might be on given that he’s never been stretched out to anything close to 100 innings in single season, but I think Schwellenbach will grow into a contender’s fourth starter with reps.

Waldrep barely pitched as a freshman at Southern Miss but somehow managed the stamina to strike out 140 hitters in 90 innings as a sophomore. He transferred to Florida for his junior year and had a nearly identical season, this time blowing away SEC hitters for most of the spring. He ranked sixth on our 2023 draft board, but fell to Atlanta at no. 24 overall due to his perceived relief risk and the quality of the rest of the class. It has the feel of a Tim Duncan-era Spurs pick, an absolute coup for a contender that tends to get the most out of their own prospects and could use, at worst, another late-inning weapon in the near future. Waldrep made it to the big leagues less than a year after he was drafted, debuting a few days prior to list publication.

Waldrep’s approach to pitching is such that he likely won’t work efficiently as a starter. His fastball is surprisingly hittable considering its velocity and Waldrep’s vertical arm angle, which should theoretically be helping him create bat-missing, riding life on his heater. He often has to work above the zone with his fastball for it to be effective, and Waldrep runs deep counts because of this. The headline pitch in his arsenal is a cartoonish split changeup, which has incredible fading action and has missed bats at an elite rate in pro ball. The lone thing stopping this offering from receiving an 80 grade is Waldrep’s tendency to leave it hanging, though often it’s nasty enough to avoid damage even when he does. He has more or less scrapped his college curveball since the draft and has instead made use of a 84-89 mph cutter/slider. His ability to routinely land that pitch for a strike contributes to Waldrep’s starter projection here, along with his demonstrated durability and plus athleticism. Similar to Reese Olson from a stuff standpoint, and to Drey Jameson in terms of his delivery and athleticism, Waldrep has a no. 3 starter’s ceiling and a closer’s floor.

A classic high school pitcher draft prospect, Ritchie had a projectable 6-foot-2 frame, a fast, whippy arm action and a snappy, devastating breaking ball as a Pacific Northwest prepster in 2022. His gorgeous arm action portended changeup development, and his feel for spin allowed you to project that Ritchie would develop a second good breaking ball over time. It took $2.4 million to keep him from a commitment to UCLA, but sadly Ritchie blew out after just four 2023 starts and had surgery in late May/early June of last year.

Ritchie would show you 94-96 in short bursts as an amateur, but area scouts saw his velo dip late in games during his senior spring. He didn’t pitch deep enough into the 2023 season to show he could sustain or improve upon his average velocity, but given his build and athleticism, it’s plausible he’ll come out of TJ rehab with better heat. We might find out later this year, as Ritchie was not given a “full-season injured list” designation and remains on the 60-day IL, leaving open the possibility for affiliated innings (and maybe the Arizona Fall League?) in 2024.

Alvarez’s report continues to read like a Yandy Díaz starter kit. He has legit 80-grade plate discipline and chases less than 20% of the time (including with two strikes), but he’s too bulky to play shortstop and lacks the prototypical power of a corner infielder. Obviously, in Yandy’s case, this has been fine, and he’s turned into a very productive big leaguer even though he slid from shortstop to third base as a prospect. Alvarez’s early-career performance indicates his feel for the zone and contact are both special enough that he might traverse a similar medium-impact path.

While stout and relatively projectionless, Alvarez is loose and rotates well in the batter’s box, and he moves well on the bases. He often lets the baseball travel deep in the zone and has the barrel feel to pepper the opposite gap, though not with meaningful extra-base power. Alvarez looks less and less likely to stick at shortstop (he doesn’t have the range, athleticism, or arm strength), but the Braves have not deployed him at other positions with any sort of frequency since 2022. Based on the way Alvarez tends to be positioned on defense — he starts closer to third base than the typical shortstop and as a result gets to make most plays coming in and moving from right to left — he’s going to have plenty of experience making the kinds of plays that are typical at third base. He seems likeliest to transition there, where he could be quite good. While I’m trying to be mindful of the impact his elite plate discipline will have on his output, it’s tough to project an impact future for a third baseman who seems pretty likely to slug below .400 across his years of team control. Instead, he’s graded here as a second-division regular. He was promoted to Triple-A Gwinnett just before list publication.

Perdomo got the biggest bonus in the 2024 international amateur class at a cool $5 million. Like a lot of Atlanta’s targets in that market, international scouts described him as having perhaps the most polished contact/power combination in the whole group. He has easy pull-side power, with deft, precise control of the barrel working to generate big all-around offense, enough that Perdomo could profile as an everyday player even if he ends up being too big for shortstop pretty quickly. Perdomo does some slick things at short, he’s just rather stocky and slightly stiff compared to a typical top-of-the-class prospect. His vertical barrel variability is incredible for a player his age, though his front side is a little stiff through contact and he might be tested by pro breaking stuff in the bottom third of the zone, the same way Spencer Torkelson has been.

Perdomo has a great offensive foundation for an amateur prospect, which might allow him to move quickly through the lower minors. The Braves seem to think so too, assigning Perdomo directly to the Florida Complex League in 2024 rather than the DSL like basically every other new signee. He is on the 60-day IL with a hamstring injury and hasn’t played as of list publication, but a source indicated to FanGraphs that the Braves still expect he’ll play this year. If the Braves think so highly of Perdomo that they promoted him to Florida immediately, they might want to extend his rehab past the trade deadline.

From the many athletic Hackenbergs, Drue was a 2023 draft-eligible sophomore at Virginia Tech whose spring ERA approached 6.00. Unranked and evaluated as a 40 FV reliever at the time of the draft, Hackenberg got a hefty $2 million bonus as Atlanta’s second round pick.

Hack and the Braves have already altered his fastball usage, mixing a four-seamer in with his college sinker; the two pitches have radically different shapes. His fastball’s velocity has been climbing throughout 2024; in late May, he was averaging 92-93, while in his last start prior to list publication, Hackenberg was sitting 93-95 deep into the game and touched 96. A lack of fastball effectiveness was part of why Hackenberg surrendered 113 hits in 85.1 innings as a sophomore, and development in this area is the chief reason why his FV grade has been elevated since he signed. Hackenberg’s slurve was always excellent and continues to be. It sits in the 81-85 mph range and has power two-plane action. He also has a flat, terse cutter in the 86-89 mph range and an upper-80s changeup in the nascent stages of development.

There are still some hurdles for Hackenberg to climb to comfortably profile as a starter, but he’s already put himself in much better position to do so than at this time last year. If he can find a weapon designed to get lefties out (either via changeup development or a more frequent effort to get way over the top of his breaking ball to create depth), then we’re talking about a no. 4 starter type who you’d find at the back of the Top 100.

Baldwin signed for just south of $650,000 as the Braves’ third rounder in 2022. He slashed .318/.426/.549 throughout his college career in Springfield, had as many walks as strikeouts, and posted a 51% hard-hit rate (Missouri State plays in the same stadium as the Cardinals’ Double-A team, so it’s fitted with all the tech) in a pretty sizable sample as a junior. As a pro, Baldwin has posted an OPS above .750 and generated above-average offense at every level en route to a Double-A assignment to start 2024, most of it driven by his OBP. I’m skeptical about Baldwin’s on-base ability continuing to play quite like it has so far. Baldwin’s chase rate with two strikes has tended to be much higher than in other counts, which is an indication of premeditated takes early in at-bats. That gap (25% overall chase, 37% with two strikes) is not as big so far in 2024 as it was in 2023 (25% and a rather elevated 44%, respectively), but it’s still meaningful.

Baldwin’s contact rates are very exciting — 83% in the zone in 2023 and approaching 90% so far in 2024. The short-levered lefty swings hard and rotates with verve for a player his size, and he tends to pepper the opposite field gap. It’s rare for him to turn and burn extra-base hits to his pull side, especially against fastballs. His offense projects to be well-rounded and competent for a big league catcher, but it lacks an impact skill unless you believe his plate discipline is going to map to the majors without a dip.

Baldwin has made impressive developmental progress on defense. The Braves drastically altered some stylistic elements of his receiving, most notably paring down Baldwin’s footwork and putting him more regularly on one knee, and it has taken Baldwin some time to get comfortable with that. His receiving and ball blocking are still only fair, in part because of Baldwin’s lack of size and strength, but the quickness and consistency of his exchange on throws to second base has gotten much better. Baldwin’s skills are approaching that of an average primary catcher, but his lack of size and my apprehension about taking his OBP skills at face value has me forecasting him as more of a second-division regular. He was promoted to Triple-A Gwinnett just before list publication.

Guanipa was ranked sixth in the 2023 international class thanks largely to his foot speed, which gave him a shot to be an impact center fielder. He was viewed by international scouts as a potential future leadoff hitter and signed for $2.5 million. He slashed .238/.361/.384 and posted good (not great) contact rates during his 2023 DSL debut. A hamstring injury has kept Guanipa out for most of the 2024 season; he’s finally gotten back into a couple of games as of list publication, but is still being deployed with care. Last season, Guanipa was in the habit of flying way, way open during his swing, with his front hip bailing toward third base on many of his swings. In just the little bit of action he’s seen this year, that appears to have been remedied. This is a smaller guy who’ll be reliant on explosiveness to become an impact player, not strength. Because Guanipa has been compromised in 2024, his FV grade holds.

Like a lot of Braves’ draft targets, Murphy was a two-way high school prospect with gorgeous mechanics. He enjoyed a little velocity uptick his senior year of high school but didn’t sustain it through his first full pro season, with his heater back in the 88-92 mph range on average during an otherwise solid 2023 campaign. Murphy threw 89.2 innings, posted 113 strikeouts and 32 walks, and ended the season at High-A.

Murphy throws quality strikes with his fastball, which has vertical ride, helping it punch above its weight. His two breaking balls — an 81-85 mph slider and a slower 12-to-6 curveball — have lovely natural shape and break (especially the curveball), but both would benefit from more velocity (especially the slider). Though he doesn’t really have a changeup right now, Murphy’s athleticism and feel to pitch should enable growth in this area. Murphy has a silky smooth and repeatable delivery, but it was tough to project on his velo while he was in high school because he had a boxy, relatively mature frame. He looked more lithe in 2023, and was physically more like a typical medium-framed college-aged pitching prospect. Murphy was off to a hot start in 2024 (though he was not throwing any harder) before he blew his UCL and needed TJ at the beginning of June. The timing of the surgery makes Murphy a 2025 Fall League candidate, as he’ll most likely be back very late next year, if at all. The 2026 season is Murphy’s 40-man platform year, and it will be interesting to see how Atlanta handles his innings count and promotion pace once he returns.

Lara has a ton of relief risk because of round-down fastball plane and poor command, but we’re watching Angels righty José Soriano start to gain traction as a mid-rotation starter with a very similar scouting profile.

Lara is built like a college quarterback at a strapping, high-waisted 6-foot-3. He is a powerful, tightly-wound athlete whose feel for release is way, way behind his pure arm speed. Often, Lara’s delivery isn’t well-connected and he throws a ton of non-competitive fastballs. He also throws 100. Like the prospect version of Soriano or Arizona’s Justin Martinez, Lara gets punished for this because his downhill heater is more vulnerable to contact than you’d expect given how hard he throws, and that’s exacerbated by his lack of command. But again, Lara throws 100 and he also has a dastardly two-plane slider in the 89-92 mph range. It has cutter shape in a vacuum, but from Lara’s high three-quarters slot, it effectively has the depth of a slider.

Lara’s build, arm strength, and slider quality are indicative of a late-inning relief prospect. It’s conceivable he could improve his feel for release as he matures into his mid-20s. He’s essentially a two-pitch guy right now. If he wants to go full Soriano, Lara will develop something like Soriano’s splinker and/or refine the way his fastball dives to his arm side. That is the path he must walk to hit his ceiling as a starter.

The $750,000 it took to sign Baumann away from a commitment to UCF was below what I would have expected given my evaluation of him at the time of the draft. Baumann’s enormous, well-composed 6-foot-8 frame seemed like sufficient reason to round up on his long-term projection as a strike-thrower and innings eater. It also felt as though he might return to showing the mid-90s heat he was throwing during his pre-draft summer. Alas, after dipping into the 91-95 mph range for most of his senior spring, Baumann remains in that velocity band in 2024.

Baumann has been deploying a fastball-heavy approach at Low-A Augusta so far, mixing four- and two-seamers in pretty evenly. He is a much more advanced strike-thrower than most pitchers his age, let alone ones his size. Baumann’s feel for locating his secondary pitches is way ahead of their pure nastiness. It may be tough for him to develop an impact breaking ball from a stuff standpoint, though it’s possible Baumann’s changeup will keep getting better and better the more he pitches. More like a no. 5 starter in terms of stuff, the ceiling on Baumann’s command and ability to log a ton of innings is what juices his FV grade a bit here.

Burkhalter had a velocity swoon in April of his draft year and dealt with a stretch where his heater only sat about 92 mph. It ramped up again late in the season and peaked during the 2022 College World Series, where he was bumping 97, tilting in a hellacious cutter as hard as 92 mph, and also missing bats with the occasional changeup. While his violent delivery pushed his projection toward the bullpen, Burkhalter’s repertoire depth gave him a shot to start and his stuff seemed to be improving as the draft approached. Burkhalter was electric in his lone 2023 Grapefruit League appearance (up to 97, nasty upper-80s cutters with more depth when Burkhalter wanted it), but his final fastball (94.7 mph) and 18th pitch of the inning was three ticks slower then his first one (97.7 mph) and just two weeks later, the Braves announced Burkhalter needed Tommy John.

Burkhalter rehabbed throughout 2023 and returned to an affiliated mound just before 2024 list publication. I saw one of his June Florida Complex rehab outings in North Port and he looked great. He was sitting 95-96, touched 98, and commanded the same 92 mph cutter/slider from before he blew out. His full-body, high-effort delivery is still evocative of a likely reliever, but it makes sense to see if his changeup can take a step forward or if the Braves can tease a second, more distinct breaking ball out of him. The 2025 season is Burkhalter’s 40-man platform year and it’s plausible Atlanta could decide to fast track him as a reliever in the middle of next year.

Ceballos was a high-profile amateur because of his undersized linebacker’s build and huge arm, which Perfect Game touted as having among its highest measured infield throwing velocities ever at PG National. Ceballos began his college career at San Jacinto Junior College in Texas and was drafted in the 14th round as a sophomore by the Angels (he didn’t sign) before transferring to Oregon for his junior year. In Eugene, Ceballos hit .333/.426/.643, accrued nearly as many walks as strikeouts, and had a great collegiate postseason; the Braves popped him 11 rounds sooner in 2023 than he had been taken the year before.

Ceballos’ skill set is headlined by his plus defensive actions and his huge arm. A balanced, low-to-the-ground athlete with great footwork, he has a strong, accurate arm from all kinds of odd platforms. His athletic style is more about body control than explosion, and this also applies to Ceballos’ offense, which is driven by plate discipline and a compact swing. Though some of his best cuts look rather explosive, with Ceballos’ bat finishing in the dirt behind him, he doesn’t have the high-end raw power typical of a corner infielder. Because he also isn’t a speedy, up-the-middle athlete, this may be an all-or-nothing situation at third base; it’s tough to project Sabin as a utility guy. He’ll need a combination of contact and OBP skills sufficient to clear the offensive bar of an everyday third baseman, which is plausible but unlikely. Ceballos’ plate coverage and feel for all-fields contact is visually striking and his underlying swing-and-miss data (a 7% swinging strike rate as of list publication) corroborates it. He projects to be a Matt Duffy type of big league corner infielder.

Braun didn’t pitch very much as an underclassman at San Diego, and it took transferring to Northridge for him to find a real role. He signed for just about $350,000 as a 2023 sixth rounder, and his 2024, his second season stretched out as a starter, is off to an encouraging start at High-A Rome. Braun has a plus sweeper already. It has big league length in the low-80s and his feel for locating it is advanced. Braun is smaller, but his delivery is consistent and easy looking. The line on his fastball pairs well with the two-plane look of his sweeper, and Braun has fair feel for creating tailing action on his changeup. Late to starting and coming out of a smaller program, Braun is a solid backend starter prospect whose pro career is off to a fast start.

Drafted as a high school outfielder in 2019, Morton flamed out as a hitter in 2023 and has switched to pitching in 2024. He’s an elite athletic mover on the mound, has one of the more picturesque deliveries you’ll see, and generates seven feet of extension. The raw material Atlanta has to work with here is very, very exciting, and even though Morton isn’t throwing all that hard immediately upon conversion, the potential for growth in this area is substantial because of how gorgeous his delivery is. As I’ve written many times before at the site, successful conversion arms tend to get good pretty quickly, and it’s important to monitor Morton’s velocity over the next year or so (he’s only made six appearances as of this writing) for progress, especially when he arrives for camp next year.

Garcia is a well-rounded corner outfield prospect who has hit in the heart of the Braves’ DSL and complex teams’ lineups the last two years. He has an effortless, sweet-looking lefty swing currently geared for gap-to-gap contact. Garcia’s ability to move the barrel around the zone is fair, he has roughly 40-grade raw power already at age 18, and he has the biggest, most projectable frame of the entire Braves complex group. Garcia’s balanced offensive tool foundation should grow and improve as he gets stronger. He has a reasonable shot to be a corner platoon outfielder.

Munoz has one of the better sliders in the minors and has K’d at least a batter per inning every season that he’s been in pro ball, including 33% of Double-A hitters so far in 2024. His 85-89 mph comet sliders often have incredible length for how hard they are. Munoz also has one of the bigger gaps in the minor leagues between his fastball’s velocity and effectiveness. His 98 mph heater plays down due to ineffective movement, below-average control, and because Munoz’s delivery appears easy for hitters to time. These issues will probably limit his role to the middle innings.

Holmes was once a high-profile Dodgers high school draftee who was later traded to Oakland as part of a pretty big Rich Hill/Josh Reddick trade return that also included Frankie Montas and Jharel Cotton. He plateaued with Oakland and was eventually moved to the bullpen and released in the middle of 2022. Since joining Atlanta, his primary breaking ball has shifted from a low-80s curveball to an upper-80s slider, and Holmes has also been throwing a bit harder, averaging 95 mph so far in 2024. The Braves recently moved Holmes from the bullpen back into their rotation at Gwinnett and it’s going pretty well. He’s peppering the top of the zone with his fastballs and cutters, working with his new-ish slider against righties, and generating arm-side bend on his curveball against lefties. He looks like an active roster big leaguer, probably a long reliever due to Holmes’ below-average command.

Johnson is a very physical, high-effort relief prospect who utilizes a slider-heavy approach to pitching. Johnson’s slider will bend in as hard as 94 mph. He hides the ball well and throws with such violence that it often take hitters a second to adjust to his delivery. His fastball will touch 99, but Johnson’s very high release point creates a downhill angle that hurts the pitch’s ability to miss bats. Johnson’s stuff is pretty nasty and while his bull-in-a-china-shop control will probably limit him to up/down duty when he debuts, he could pitch his way into a more regular middle relief role if he gains better control of his body in his mid-20s.

Vargas is starting at High-A Rome but he is overwhelmingly a two-pitch guy who projects in relief. Stocky and powerful, he’ll reach back for 97 on occasion, but Vargas throws his upper-80s cutter and slider most of the time. He can vary the shape of it such that it has finishing angle toward the back foot of lefties, or he can flatten it out to work it around their hands. If he keeps pitching like he has so far in 2024, Vargas will have made a pretty good case for a 40-man spot, especially if the Braves are inclined to ‘pen him (which they tend not to do until absolutely necessary).

Kuehler’s velocity has backed up compared to when he was an amateur and he’s been pitching in the 89-92 mph range so far in 2024. Many scouts (and yours truly) projected Kuehler to be a reliever in pro ball, and it’s possible that’s what it will take for him to return to the 93-95, touch 98 velo he showed with Team USA during the summer of 2022. Kuehler is a smaller-framed guy with medium athleticism. Despite a very short arm action, his release varies in a way that impacts the shape and consistency of his 81-84 mph breaking ball. It appears as though he’s learning a splitter. He’s definitely throwing one in 2024, but I don’t have anything in my notes from prior years about him doing so. That pitch is a wait-and-see offering that is basically brand new. I wrote Kuehler up as a bullpen’s third banana at the time of the draft, but so far he’s an “arrow down” guy who you hope rebounds into the mid-90s and can work in middle relief.

A Day Three JUCO pick from the 2022 draft, Kilpatrick’s defense and on-base skills put him on the prospect radar last year, and he projects to play a bench outfield role in the Jake Marisnick mold. He’s repeating High-A in 2024 after slashing an underwhelming .226/.333/.333 last year and is enjoying an uptick in production, as one would expect of a player in his second go-round of a minor league level. The length and uphill nature of Kilpatrick’s swing, which makes it difficult for him to turn on the baseball and time good fastballs, will probably keep KJ’s offensive production from reaching an everyday level. His range, ball skills and bold willingness to leave his feet to make plays creates some highlight reel catches. He’s tracking to be part of the Braves’ bench a few years from now.

A 2021 Minor League Rule 5 pick from the Mets, Winans was moved from the bullpen into the rotation after the Braves brought him on and has grown into a viable spot starter. A lanky, strike-throwing changeup artist, he has had success at Triple-A but not yet in the big leagues. Sudden acceleration in the middle of his delivery can catch hitters off guard, but mostly Winans succeeds because of the sinking action of his mid-80s changeup. He’ll likely serve as a depth starter during his option years and has a chance to shift into a Trevor Richards style relief role down the line. Even though he’s 28, Winans is a limber gent with a relatively fluid delivery, the sort of pitcher who could have greater athletic longevity than his barrel-chested peers.

Dodd began his college career at Kankakee Community College in Illinois before matriculating to Southeast Missouri State for three more years. He didn’t truly establish himself until 2021, his fourth year removed from high school, when Dodd struck out 120 batters and walked just 17 in 96.2 innings. The Braves made him their third round pick, altered his delivery, and coaxed a little more velo and fastball playability out of him. The following year, Dodd raced all the way to Triple-A in his first full season while maintaining his stuff across a 30-inning workload increase. Since then, Dodd has struggled to break through to the next level. He had a great 2023 spring training and made seven big league starts but was knocked around. He’s back at Triple-A in 2024 and has pitched to a nearly 4.50 FIP amid a little bit of a velocity rebound. Dodd doesn’t have a plus weapon in his arsenal, but he can land any of his pitches at any time, his changeup can compete for whiffs in the zone, and Dodd can manipulate the shape and length of his slower breaking ball. This is an starting pitcher no. 6-9 type in his second option year.

Farris is a small school lefty with a graceful, repeatable delivery and a classic vertical arm stroke that helps him hide the ball for a long time. He deploys two effective secondary pitches (a screwball-style changeup from a high slot and a low-spin breaking ball reliant on Farris’ command), and his ability to locate his fastball helps keep it out of trouble even though it isn’t all that hard. It will be more vulnerable as he climbs the minors, but it’s plausible Farris could yet throw harder given his small school background and frame/mechanics combo.

Zebrowski is repeating High-A to start 2024 after he slashed .203/.307/.376 with a 90 wRC+ there in 2023. This is the sort of prospect you want to stay on for a while even when there isn’t great surface-level performance, as Zebrowski is a Division-III draftee with just two full pro seasons under his belt and overt big league physicality. Zebrowski is extremely strong and has rare power for a catcher. His raw pop is comfortably plus, and even though he’s likely to end up with a hit tool that’s way below average, he presents viable offensive ability for a catcher.

Zebrowski is a soundly below-average defender right now, but he’s not so bad as to be considered 1B/DH-only just yet, and he’s gotten better during the last year. His throwing accuracy and the pace of his exchange have improved substantially, and he’s hosing a high percentage of would-be base stealers as of list publication even though his pop times are in the 45- and 50-grade range most of the time. Braves fans are familiar with the relatively low rate of actualization for developmental catchers like this (Alex Jackson, Brett Cumberland, Drew Lugbauer, etc.), but once in a while you get an Evan Gattis. Zebrowski is a developmental flier of this sort.

Waddell has struggled to perform on offense at Triple-A Gwinnett. The bat-to-ball maven had made elite rates of contact since he was an amateur, but his performance in this regard has dipped into a “merely” plus range in 2024, and Waddell is especially struggling against fastballs 94 mph and above. On the other side of the ledger, the way the Braves have been positioning Waddell on defense (further toward the hole between shortstop and third base) has masked some of his issues there. He looks as sound a shortstop defender as he ever has, whereas he was previously projected to second base only due to a lack of arm strength. He simply looks much more comfortable moving from right to left as often as possible. The squat Waddell doesn’t have the athleticism to play all over the diamond, and so rather than an on-roster utility role, he’s projected as an above-replacement depth option on the middle infield.

Maier was arguably a top 50 draft prospect before he blew out in March of 2022; he had his UCL repaired with an internal brace rather than have a traditional Tommy John. The Braves gave him an over-slot $1.2 million in the 2022 seventh round and he rehabbed throughout 2023, making his pro debut in 2024.

Pre-surgery Maier sat 92-94 and would peak in the 95-97 mph range depending on the outing, but Maier’s pitching style was more of the east/west sinker variety designed to work efficiently and induce weak contact. Maier is dominating Low-A during his long-awaited pro debut, but he’s also sitting just 89-92. It’s plausible he could throw harder the further removed from surgery he gets, but at these velocities, Maier looks like more of a spot starter or bulk relief prospect. Maier is a short-levered sidearmer who takes a direct, low-to-the-ground stride toward the plate. His fastball and slider have big lateral divergence from one another. Command and guile help facilitate his mix. The 2025 season is Maier’s 40-man platform year, so it’s important to note his innings count and promotion pace the rest of 2024 to understand whether he’ll actually enter next season within realistic range of a roster spot.

Though he’s had some issues identifying spin so far on the Braves’ North Port complex in 2024, Baez only struck out 12.1% of the time in his DSL debut and stands out for his explosive in-the-box athleticism. This is a quarter-stick-of-dynamite type of athlete who swings with shocking ferocity for a hitter his size. At just 5-foot-9, Baez utilizes a huge leg kick and move back toward the pitcher during his swing. His bat path isn’t geared for lift yet, and the gap between his 2023 bat-to-ball performance and what he’s looked like this year is sizable. But Baez has some clout as a twitchy, power-hitting middle infield prospect.

Hernández made his affiliated debut in 2018 when he was 21 and more or less fell below the prospect list threshold when he began walking hitters in excess after a return from a 2022 full-season injury. He wrangled his upper-90s heater and upper-80s slider enough to pitch past Triple-A three years after he first reached it. Hernández generates a lot of torque with his hips and throws surprisingly hard for a softer-bodied dude, sitting 95-98 and touching 100. Daysbel’s hat often flies off mid-delivery because it requires so much effort to generate that kind of heat. That effort also leads him to spray his fastball all over the place. His feel for his slider is better, so he throws it more often than his heater. He has the stuff of a late-inning reliever, but Hernández’s command is rough enough that he has more of an up/down forecast here.

Joseph’s delivery is so messy that even though he has some of the best arm strength in the system, he just barely scoots onto the list on sheer talent. Pitching out of Rome’s bullpen, Joseph was humming in 97-98 mph fastballs the night before list publication and bending in upper-80s sliders with 2,900 rpm. He’s a very physical, low-ish slot righty without tactile feel for release. So inconsistent is Joseph’s release point that his nickname could be Elison “Jesus, Mary and” Joseph, which is what I found myself muttering watching Rome’s catchers sprinting to the backstop during film study. If Joseph can find even 40-grade control, he’ll be a good reliever.

Juan was once a very young and inexperienced addition to Oakland’s 40-man roster, but he struggled to stay healthy and (later on) throw strikes. He was released and re-signed in 2022, then elected free agency after the 2023 season and signed with Atlanta; the 6-foot-8 righty has found slightly better control than he had in 2023. Juan is enormous, but he’s a short-strider who generates much less extension than you’d expect from a pitcher this big. He tends to be relatively upright at release, which gives his pitches the steep plane of a runaway truck ramp. This most benefits Juan’s power curveball, which doesn’t pop out of his hand in an identifiable way. Juan’s size, arm strength, and breaking ball performance give him a shot to break into a big league bullpen as a late-bloomer.

After three seasons at Division III Southwestern (TX), Smith transferred to the University of Arizona and enjoyed a velocity spike throughout his only season there, with some 88 mph fastballs at the start of the year and some 98 mph heaters at the end. In 2022, he continued to sit 94-97 and touch at least 98 while closing at Rome. He missed 2023 due to a UCL tear, and had completed rehab and rejoined Double-A Mississippi shortly before list publication. He was 94-96 in his first FCL rehab outing but a source with a rival team has him sitting 93 since. If Smith can consistently be the mid-90s cut/carry guy he was pre-injury, then he stands a good shot to be a middle reliever. He’s teetering at the bottom of the list here with the hope his arm strength will stabilize.

A 2021 Royals JUCO pick, Halligan only lasted a couple of years in KC’s system before he was release mid-2022. The Braves signed him and for a while attempted to stretch Halligan out as a starter before simplifying things late in 2023 and early in 2024. Working an inning or two at a time, Halligan’s deceptive delivery and nasty splitter have allowed him to dominate Double-A. His combination of size and extreme over-the-top release create funky plane on Halligan’s heater and make his splitter seemingly impossible to pick up out of his hand as it plummets into the dirt. He’ll bend in a mid-80s cutter and low-80s curveball just to show hitters something else, but if Halligan is going to be an unlikely big league success story, it’ll be because of his split.

McCabe is a dangerous switch-hitter with high-effort power from both sides of the plate. He lacks a true position (he’s played mostly third base as a pro but isn’t mobile enough to do it at the big league level) and will probably be a bench weapon rather than a regular starter. He is currently on the IL recovering from Tommy John.