Promote Them Already: Braves Prospects Who’ve Earned a Move Up the Ladder
As the draft nears and roster spots reshuffle, these Braves prospects are ready for the next level.
The MLB Draft is just around the corner, and the Atlanta Braves are poised to add somewhere around 18-20 players to a farm system that needs an infusion of position player talent.
(Our final MLB Draft preview and positional wishlist is coming tomorrow.)
As these new players enter the bottom of the organization, there’s going to be a need to move existing prospects to new levels of competition, to make space. Here’s who should be going up and why.
Why the urgency to make space?
There are two main reasons that Atlanta needs to make roster spots in the lower levels of the minors, outside of the obvious “promoting deserving players that are worthy of a new challenge.” One is logistical, and one is because of the team’s typical post-draft usage of their new players.
The logistical reason has to do with MLB’s Domestic Reserve List. Put simply, Major League Baseball has collectively bargained the number of roster spots an organization can have in its four full-season affiliates plus in the Florida Complex League. With the last Collective Bargaining Agreement, negotiated prior to the 2022 season, the domestic list was narrowed to 180 players, and it narrowed again, prior to last season, to 165.
In essence, teams are only allowed to have 165 players in the United States, among all of their four full-season affiliates. Players in the Dominican Summer League, while restricted to 35 players per roster (and multiple rosters are allowed, if the organization wants to spend that additional money on salaries and instruction), are unaffected by the Domestic Reserve Limit.
The side effect of this reduced roster limit is that it’s harder to carry a fringe prospect, as well as being harder to bring an international free agent to the States to be challenged against a tougher level of competition.
Another side effect is cuts are needed mid-summer, as players selected in the MLB Draft immediately apply towards the limit once they’re signed.
As of Wednesday afternoon, here’s the total count for each of the Atlanta minor league affiliates, which equals the maximum allowed 165:
Note: Players on the 60-day IL do not count against the 165-man Domestic Reserve List limit, while those on the full-season IL do unless they’re formally moved to the 60-day. Teams are allowed just fifteen minor leaguers on the 60-day IL.
Triple-A Gwinnett: 34 players (plus two on 60-day IL)
Double-A Columbus: 31 players (plus two on 60-day IL)
High-A Rome: 33 players (plus three on 60-day IL)
Single-A Augusta: 33 players (plus three on 60-day IL)
Complex league: 34 players (plus three on 60-day IL)
As a result of this list, you’ll see several affiliates making cuts over the next few weeks, likely in response to players being signed to deals. Some have already started; the Gwinnett Stripers released veteran reliever Dylan Covey on Tuesday.
But the other reason for Atlanta to promote players is to create playing time opportunities for prospects in the lower levels. As the new schedule of the Complex League has play ending on July 25th, the only place to get newly drafted players some actual competitive innings or at-bats is in the two lowest levels of the minors.
And rest assured, Atlanta absolutely wants to do that.
The Braves are usually towards the top of the leaderboards for most innings or strikeouts from one of their draftees every season. Hurston Waldrep, 2023’s 1st rounder, followed up his 101.2 collegiate innings for Florida with a MLB-leading 29.1 innings spread across all four full-season affiliates.
Last season, it was the trio of Herick Hernandez, Owen Hackman, and Jacob Shafer. Hernandez struck out twelve between Single-A Augusta and High-A Rome despite only pitching 6.2 innings, while Hackman and Shafer both cleared twenty innings with Augusta while putting up ERAs of 1.35 or under.
So, it makes sense that Atlanta needs to clear out roster spots in the lower minors to throw some of their newly drafted players into the fire. Here’s who should move up to create some playing time.
Let Burky’s cutter eat
Anyone who reads Braves Today on the regular knows that I’m a fan of righthander Blake Burkhalter. The righthander out of Auburn sports a cutter that was taught to him by Braves legend Tim Hudson and has used it to great effect in Columbus for the Clingstones.
Across his fourteen starts this season, ‘Burky’ is 2-5 with a 3.13 ERA, striking out 65 in his 72 innings with 29 walks and a 1.078 WHIP. One of the stats that stands out the most to me, more so than perhaps any other stat about the farm system, is that he’s faced 306 batters this season and allowed just one home run.1
Burky’s body of work and the polish of that cutter make this one of the least dramatic promotion discussions in the entire organization. The last time he allowed more than three earned runs in a start was May 2nd and he’s worked into the sixth inning in six of his last eight starts, only once failing to complete five innings during that stretch.
The one thing to be mindful of as he moves up is maintaining his performance against lefties. He’s giving up a .260 average and .658 OPS to southpaws, well behind his .215 average and .560 OPS to righties. Continued improvements in his kick-change and that newer curveball will help with this.
He’s likely on his way to Gwinnett pretty soon, but some run in Atlanta isn’t out of the question.
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Let Rayven fly to High-A
Rayven Antonio moved from rookie ball to Single-A late last season and did…fine, putting up a 3.66 ERA in 19.2 innings of work. The peripherals weren’t that great, however: 12 walks to 14 strikeouts, good for a 1.678 WHIP.
He’s corrected in a repeat of the level. Antonio’s now sporting a crisp 2.72 ERA and 1.089 WHIP, thanks to lowering his walk rate from 5.5 BB/9 to 3.3. It’s not just the control that’s improved; it’s also the stuff. His strikeout rate has jumped from 6.4 K/9 to better than one an inning at 9.5 K/9, with 63 strikeouts on the year in 59.2 innings entering Wednesday.
Given that he’s not particularly homer-prone, getting got just four times in 247 batters faced, it’s probably time for a tougher challenge. He can take Burkhalter’s spot and work on providing length - he’s finished five innings in jut eight of his thirteen outings on the year, although he has done it in four of his last five starts. His season-long for length is just 5.2 innings, coming in a shutout against Lynchburg where he allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out four in an eventual 4-1 loss off the Augusta bullpen.
Will Verdung ever homer?
Will Verdung is an atypical corner infield profile. Coming to Atlanta via Itawamba Community College in 2023’s 13th round, the utility infielder’s bounced between first and third (adding some second for good measure) and is batting .281 on the season for High-A Rome.
Here’s the thing: Most of his production comes against righties, where he’s hitting .320 with a .412 on-base, and he hasn’t homered at all this season in 301 plate appearances entering Wednesday.
Homers have never been a big part of his game prior to this season (three career minor league homers in 214 games/881 PAs), so it’s not like this season is an outlier, but with as much trouble as Columbus has with finding offense, adding Verdung to their roster would be a nice way to juice production of an anemic Double-A offense while adding space for a young position player below him.
Get this man to full-season ball!
Juan Mateo was a 2024 IFA out of the Dominican Republic that was just…fine in the DSL last summer, hitting .250. He’s turned a corner in the Complex League this year, hitting .302/.376/.349 across the first 45 games of the schedule.
He’s capable of playing all three non-first-base infield positions, although he’s spent most of his time in the Complex at third base. Some of the early scouting reports on him were that he’s exceptionally adept at bat control, with fantastic hand-eye coordination that allows him to get to virtually any ball he attempts to put the bat on.
While his power leaves something to be desired and likely always will, despite his projectability, he profiles as a contact and OBP-focused utility infielder that deserves an opportunity to continue playing once the Complex season is done in a few weeks. He’s earned the chance to test himself against more advanced arms and deserves a spot somewhere on the August roster.
Development demands movement
With the Draft arriving and roster limits looming, Atlanta’s about to have to make some tough choices. But for players like Burkhalter, Antonio, Verdung, and Mateo, this isn’t just about making space, it’s about rewarding performance. If the Braves want to keep their player development machine humming, these promotions aren’t optional. They’re overdue.
Tampa Bay’s Xavier Isaac got him in the 6th inning of a start on May 22nd. Fun fact: The other rated first baseman in Tampa Bay’s system, Tre’ Morgan, also homered off Burkhalter in college. Found that interesting.
Did Blake just get promoted to AAA? Amazing call Lindsay.
So ready to see positive things (as you have delineated) happen.