Breaking Down Every Braves Draft Pick — and What It Says About Their Strategy

A detailed look at all 21 selections and an explanation of what Atlanta was trying to do here.

The Atlanta Braves have wrapped their 2025 MLB Draft, adding a total of 21 players. They took eight position players and thirteen pitchers, but it’s the timing of these selections that are significant. Atlanta’s five position players in their first six selections is a hitter-heavy concentration that hasn’t been seen by this franchise since 2019, when they also took five position players in their first six selections.

Let’s look at all 21 selections, some basics on each player, and evaluate what Atlanta was trying to do here.

Player capsules

Day 1

1.22: SS Tate Southisene, prep out of Nevada - read more about Tate below

2.60: SS Alex Lodise, Florida State University

3.96: SS Cody Miller, East Tennessee State University

Grading day one of Atlanta's draft

Day 2

4.127: LHP Briggs McKenzie, prep out of North Carolina

Here’s one of the first places where Atlanta’s using those underslot savings from day one. A nice value at pick 127, as he was ranked at #69 on MLB.com’s big board, McKenzie will require an overslot deal to get him out of a commitment to LSU. He’s touched mid-90s on his fastball, but struggles to carry that deep into his starts. He pairs it with a dynamic late-breaking curveball and has a changeup, although the offspeed needs a ton of work. Throws strikes, but definitely a work in progress from the mechanics.

4.136: 2B Dixon Williams, East Carolina

Well-rounded player that’s not amazing at anything, but average or better at everything. A former football player, something that Atlanta’s focused on in the past from a “raw athleticism” perspective. This feels like it could be a sleeper pick because he has limited time focusing on just baseball, so more development is likely in the tank than the usual college infielder.

5.157: OF Conor Essenburg, prep out of Illinois

Another overslot deal incoming, this one to buy the prep two-way player out of a commitment to Kentucky. A lot of teams liked him on the mound, owing to his low-to-mid-90s fastball and two-plane breaking ball, but the Braves announced him as an outfielder. It’s a future 20/25 homer bat that’s limited to a corner profile, but already runs the risk of being bumped down to first base depending on how the physical development goes in professional baseball.

6.187: LHP Landon Beidelschies, Arkansas

Those of you who watched Monday’s day one recap, this is one of the arms I called out as wanting Atlanta to go and grab on day two. Beidelschies was a closer then a starter at Ohio State who transferred to the SEC and made some starts for the Razorbacks. It’s mostly a two-pitch mix for now, FB/SL, but I saw him throw some good changeups in SEC play and I’m a believer in the delivery. There’s plenty of work ahead of Atlanta’s player development group to make him a mid-rotation starter, but he could be fast-tracked to the majors if they decide to focus on the relief aspect.

7.217: RHP Zach Royse, UTSA

Fun fact: Royse has the first-ever postseason victory in UTSA history when he beat Kansas State in game one of the Austin Regional. It’s a mostly two-pitch package led by a dynamic slider/cutter, upper-80s and absolutely filthy, that’s paired with an underperforming mid-90s fastball. This screams one season of starting before he converts to the bullpen, although I could see him getting to Atlanta rather quickly once he commits to relief in the pros. Heard a rumor that he’s working on a splitter, which would be fun and absolutely help the case to stick as a starter.

8.247: RHP Carter Lovasz, William & Mary

Senior-sign by Atlanta that is coming off an underwhelming 2025 season. He’s likely a reliever in pro ball. Gets plenty of strikeouts, a combined 130 punchouts in just 92.1 innings over the last two seasons, but his walk rate more than doubled this year from 2.7 BB/9 to 5.7.

9.277: OF Logan Braunschweig, UAB

Another senior-sign, Braunschweig’s going to give the team defense and high-quality contact. Not a ton of power here - 10 homers in four college seasons - but he also hit .306 with a .419 on-base with good speed up the middle (72 combined stolen bases)

10.307: RHP Kade Woods, LSU

Not a typical senior-sign - has thrown just a combined 32 innings between Alabama and LSU, including getting sidelined almost entirely by the Tigers during their run to the College World Series. He’s performed in the MLB Draft League, however, hitting upper-90s with a 1.93 ERA and thirteen strikeouts in 9.1 innings…although he also has nine walks and four HBP. There’s tools here but also a lot of work to be done is what I’m saying.

11.337: RHP Colin Daniel, UAB

The second of Atlanta’s two UAB draftees, he’s put up ERAs of 3.13 and 3.15 in the last two years, starting 14 games both seasons and pitching between 91.1 and 92 innings. Very good command and stamina, throwing three complete games in his final two seasons with only two starts of less than five innings in those two years.

At worst, he’s a reliable “set it and forget it” org guy, while adding a good third pitch to go with his lower-90s fastball and his gyro slider, as well as some more velocity growth, could elevate him into a possible back-of-the-rotation innings-eater type.

12.367: RHP Jay Woolfolk, Virginia

Another atypical senior sign. Woolfolk performed much better as a reliever earlier in his career than starting as an upperclassman, but he’s shown great strikeout rates and significantly cut both his walks and his homers in his senior season. It’s an upper-90s heater with a fastball and a slider - I’m really curious to see if Atlanta deploys him as a starter or just leans into the bullpen work immediately.

Important to note: He was a former quarterback for Virginia, so there’s another great athlete for the Braves to develop that has less time as a full-time baseball player than most senior signs.

13.397: RHP Logan Forsythe, Louisiana Tech

Transferring down from Mississippi State for a chance to start, Forsythe showed upper-90s heat from the right-hand side and a good slider, but still couldn’t get the walk issues under control. If he signs, he’ll have a career BB/9 in college of 6.9 over 63 career innings. I’d deploy him as a reliever almost immediately, thanks to the velo, and work on cleaning up some of the control and delivery issues.

14.427: RHP Mathieu Curtis, Virginia Tech

Transferred up from South Carolina Upstate and racked up strikeouts in the ACC, but couldn’t seem to keep hitters off the bases (1.552 WHIP, mostly because of a 10.7 H/9.) I feel like there could be something here, but the stuff doesn’t currently impress me and it feels like there needs to be some sort of arsenal overhaul to reach the potential.

15.457: OF Dallas Macias, Oregon State

A really interesting pick here - Macias had a nightmare 2025, seeing his batting average cut almost in half and every other stat take a significant step back. But if you’re getting the 2024 version, the guy that hit .315/.389/.512? That’s a bit more workable. He’s played some centerfield but has more time in left than center in college, owing to an arm that’s just okay. He’s committed to TCU in the transfer portal and might just end up there, as Atlanta’s likely not coming significantly out of pocket to get him in the fold.

16.487: RHP Nico Wagner, Juco

A transfer down from Nevada who Atlanta found in the MLB Draft league, he’s a stuff-over-command kid that’s got 95 mph in the tank but not a lot of idea about where it’s going or what to throw besides the heater.

17.517: RHP Brody Fowler, North Greenville

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Fowler’s a former multi-sport (prep) and two-way player (college) that’s still new to just being on the mound. He’s a big boy, 6’7 and 240 pounds, and gave up just eight homers in his 83.2 innings this season while striking out 90 against 17 strikeouts.

18.547: RHP Aiven Cabral, Northeastern

An All-Star on the Cape last year, he’s an accomplished starter who doesn’t wow you from a strikeout or stuff perspective but just stacks innings. He’s similar to Colin Daniel to me - a guy that makes your org better on the low end but could be a back-end innings eater if everything breaks right.

19.577: RHP Ryan Heppner, U British Columbia (Canada)

I’m going to be honest, I’ve got nothing here. Just don’t have any sources of information for Canadian collegiate baseball.

20.607: OF Hayden Friese, Western Carolina

A corner outfielder and first baseman with a fantastic dataset, just one of nine hitters in all of Division I with these different attributes: BB rate > 10%, SO rate < 17%, Max Exit Velocity > 109 mph, Z-Contact > 90%. (minimum 500 pitches seen and 50 batted balls).

Specifically, Friese ran a zone contact rate of 93% this year, strikeout rate of 10.1%, walk rate of 12%, and a max exit velocity of 111.6. While he hit just eleven homers in his entire college career, nine of them cane this year and it’s entirely likely that he can develop into a leftfield version of Drake Baldwin at the plate - a lefty swing that can get the ball to all fields with power.

What was Atlanta trying to do here?

Looking at the entirety of the draft, it’s clear that there were a few themes here for the Braves. They were taking athletic up-the-middle defenders early, but still identifying places they could save money (Southisene, Miller) to overslot a talented lefty prep in 4th-rounder Briggs McKenzie and a prep outfielder in 5th-rounder Conor Essenburg. As usual, they went for athletes, identifying both multi-sport athletes and two-way players who are not as far along their development timeline as their compatriots.

With their pre-10th round picks, they grabbed likely relievers and with the mid-draft college pitching picks, they were obviously targeting either stuff with control issues - Woods (10th), Woolfolk (12th), Forsythe (13th) - or proven workhorses like Daniel (11th), Fowler (17th), Cabral (18th). I like the 20th round spec pick of Hayden Friese and it’s easy to see him eventually becoming a lefty version of a 1B/LF platoon guy.

But honestly, I’m a big fan of this draft. The hitters are obviously talented, although I think Atlanta ran out of money prior to getting one more underslot prep talent - the 19th or 20th round would have been where that guy would have come off the board. Maybe they got a higher-than-expected number from either McKenzie or Essenburg?

So, what now?

Atlanta has until August 1st at 5:00 PM to sign their picks. I expect most of them to sign, with the toughest (and possibly most overslot) being McKenzie in the 4th. LSU guys are always the toughest to get to break their commitment, mainly because the Tigers will shell out the cash to get their kids to campus.

Programming note: We’re taking a few days off over here - I’m taking my kids to an all-inclusive resort to swim and have fun during the All-Star Break. Back on Friday with more, including a likely round-up of the thoughts about Atlanta’s draft from the national media and a look at the upcoming MLB Trade Deadline.