Atlanta Braves News: Draft Picks, Prospect Promotions, and More

The big news of the day remained focused on the draft, with signing news and some more comprehensive thoughts from our scouting team. Also on the prospect front, the Braves’ most promising position player was promoted to full-season player.

I’ll share my own, slightly informed, thoughts on the draft class here. It seems clear to me that the franchise’s roster construction strategy is fundamentally based on pitcher volatility and injury risk, as well as relative stability of position players. By building a strong pitching development system and a highly desirable work environment, the franchise is opting for pitcher volume and largely avoiding long-term commitments to pitchers. By extending their position players, they are not only able to get lower AAV contracts for those hitters, but they also allow themselves longer rotation cycles for position players, allowing more draft capital to be spent on pitchers without creating a deficit in position player development. By further leveraging prospect capital, particularly pitchers, to acquire additional high-quality hitters, this is a smart strategy for building a fairly consistent contender. This draft was a continuation of that approach and did a good job of combining quality and quantity prospects as far as I can tell.

Braves News

Our annual hit, the Braves Draft Signing Tracker, is live and features six signings from the team’s twenty draft picks, including their second-round pick, Carter Holton.

Our own draft expert, Matt Powers, gave his latest thoughts on the draft class, including player-by-player scouting and signability, as well as broader thoughts.

Luis Guanipa, a promising outfield prospect, was promoted to Augusta after a solid stint in the FCL as an 18-year-old. He wasn’t the only one promoted to Augusta, as new draft prospects enter the system.

We looked at why Ozzie Albies is a key part of the Braves’ success for the rest of the season.

MLB News

The Chicago White Sox have signed longtime free agent Martin Maldonado because his offense has become so brutal that it outweighs his significant intangible and defensive value.

Former Brave and most recently Brewer Dallas Kuechel was released off waivers and opted for free agency after being recently DFA’d.

The Phillies are reportedly interested in White Sox outfielder Tommy Pham as a veteran option to bolster their outfield heading into the final stretch.