Who is Atlanta's first round pick, prep shortstop Tate Southisene?

The Atlanta Braves broke a five year stretch of taking nothing but pitchers in the first round

The Atlanta Braves finally made an offense-focused draft pick in the first round, for the first time in the last six drafts, by taking prep shortstop Tate Southisene at #22.

Here’s what you need to know about Atlanta’s newest prospect.

The basics:

Date of Birth: October 6th, 2006
Physicals: 5’11, 180, pounds
High School: Basic Academy of International Studies in Nevada
College commitment: Southern California

High school career: Tate was last year’s Gatorade Player of the Year for Nevada, leading his school to the Class 5A state championship. He was a three-time All-State First Team selection, hitting .495 with 33 RBI, 50 runs scored, 16 stolen bases, and 9 home runs his senior year.

He played both shortstop and centerfield in high school, being blocked at short by his older brother (who was drafted by the Cubs in the fourth round last year).

Pre-draft rankings:

MLB Pipeline: 39
Baseball America: 43
ESPN: 37
Prospects Live: 55

What scouting reports said about him:

For his offense:

Contact: “Outstanding bat control and makes a ton of contact from the right side of the plate” (MLB Pipeline)
Power: “The swing is quick, loose, and rhythmic, built on a more linear path geared for hard line drives. That said, he shows surprising raw power to the pull side with natural lift” (Prospects Live).
Approach: “He’s very aggressive, exhibiting bat speed and strength, and the control he has is surprising given how big of a swing he generally takes.” (Prospects Live)

What the Braves said about him:

Ronit Shah, Vice President of Amateur Scouting, spoke to the media tonight. Here’s a summary of his comments.

When asked what stood out about Tate:

 Yeah, Tate's just an unbelievable athlete with twitch and looseness and explosiveness to the swing, and that really stood out to us.

Little bit unorthodox how he does it, but we love just like the freedom that he plays with, especially in the batters box.

On his defense and if he’ll play shortstop or centerfield in Atlanta:

 That's what's exciting about him. He's got the tools to play just about anywhere on the field because he's got an above-average arm. He's a plus runner. And just again, just the athleticism and the looseness, the twitch that you need to play, whether it's shortstop, second, or center. But we're definitely gonna send him out at shortstop.

(Later, after someone else asked the question again)

 We see him at shortstop, he's got the arm strength for it. He's got the hands for it. Um, it's a little newer to him, the position for sure. So he's definitely gonna need to polish up that side of the ball, but that's true for any high school shortstop.

And worst comes to worst, I think he's gonna have the tools to play just about anywhere on the diamond, whether it's the infield, the outfield, and um, especially his feel for the game is so high and his baseball IQ. So that's gonna really help him to develop wherever he ends up.

On the first impression Shah had of him:

 I saw him a couple times this spring. Also saw him in the summer of last year. And again, just what stood out to him was just the intent in the batter's box to do damage on the pitch, um, while at the same time also working counts, grinding out at-bats, and just taking quality at-bat after quality at-bat.

On MLB Network’s player comp to Angels SS Zach Neto:

 I think you're seeing someone similar to him, probably with the leg kick a little bit, something unorthodox, I think more than anything, just with the intent and the violence that he has in the batter’s box. But at the same time, his hands are just so quick and so good, he can get to any pitch in the zone.

On being the middle child in a baseball family and how that influenced his personality:

A  hundred percent. I think just the work ethic, the discipline, the tenacity that he has both on and off the field. Um, and as you mentioned, he's got the bloodlines. His older brother last year was drafted by the Cubs, I believe. Um, he has a younger brother for next year's draft, so it's, you know, baseball's in their blood for sure.

(Later, after someone else asked a similar question)

 I mean, we saw his brother last year and, you know, our area scout, Allen Hall reminded me like, Hey, they got two more of 'em coming.

It might even be three. Uh, so it's, it's definitely in their family. It's unbelievable. And they all play with so much like tenacity and aggressiveness. It's really fun to watch.

If Atlanta felt they needed to take a position player at #22:

 Yeah, I mean, like you said, it's always the best player available and it's only one pick so far. We got about 20 more to go, so we're looking forward to that. But I think with him, it was just taking a guy that we're really excited about, top to bottom in the organization.

 We just thought Tate, the way we had him evaluated, it really came down to him and he was the best player at that pick.

And like I said, I saw him a couple times myself. Our area scout, Allen Hall, did a great job from last summer to all the way to today. He (Hall) really raised a flag on him at such an early stage that I think it allowed us to invest our resources and scout 'em up and do all the work behind the scenes too.

My thoughts on the selection

I’m cool with it, given that my preferred college bats (SS Marek Houston and C/OF Ike Irish) were already off the board, as were prep shortstops Daniel Pierce and Steele Hall.

Given that he didn’t play shortstop full-time in high school until his senior year, there’s more growth possible there and that’s exciting, as he looks like he could stick at the position right now. The arm isn’t great, merely good, but that hasn’t stopped Nick Allen (and Dansby Swanson before him) from succeeding at the position in Atlanta. Being a plus runner helps him get to balls early enough to not need to bailed out by the arm as much, so that’s nice.

He’s a higher-contact option, which is great to get out of a prep, and even though it’s a mostly line-drive oriented swing right now, he has already started to lean into pulling the ball in the air down the stretch in showcases and national events. The plus bat speed and raw strength would let him fit right in with the mashers in Atlanta, as does the uber-aggressive approach at the plate.

Going off of his comments when he spoke to us via Zoom about an hour after being selected, I wouldn’t be shocked if he came in somewhere at or near the $3.98M slot value.

Ronit Shah’s media availability

Here’s a video of Shah speaking about Trey.

We’ll be back tomorrow morning with a breakdown of the entirety of day one.