Blake Burkhalter joins our list, and is one of a handful of Braves pitching prospects who make a push at reaching the upper levels this season
We’re now 60% of the way through the top 30, with pitching becoming the ever more looming presence on the list with five pitchers in this section. The Braves have received criticism for their struggle to develop their international hitting, investing significant money since the sanctions ended only to see no international hitter really have a breakout just yet. However, as the lack of development on that side of the acquisition tree isn’t quite so clear, with the Braves grabbing a number of under-the-radar pickups that have put themselves in the running for top prospectdom. Two join this section — one hitter and one pitcher — along with a high profile pitcher signed last month. The draft, however, has been a full send chase of top pitching prospects, though injury and inconsistency have knocked the other three pitchers on this list away from realizing their potential just yet.
And don’t forget to check out the earlier sections if you missed them.
19-24 | 25-30 | Honorable Mentions
18. Raudy Reyes – RHP
How he got to the Braves: 2025 International free agent
Jhancarlos Lara, meet Raudy Reyes, a new supreme talent scouted by the Atlanta Braves international scouts. Raudy, a late pop up in the international scene recently altered his mechanics resulting in an absolutely blistering fastball that comfortably hits 102 MPH. At 16 years of age, and standing at 6’4” and 210 pounds it’s hard not to get excited about his potential on the mound.
There is a ton of work that will be happening with Raudy as he still needs to figure out his full arsenal of pitches, as well as how to pitch against more polished hitters as he is quite raw at this stage of his career – but you simply can’t say no to a talent like his. Raudy will be someone we watch closely over the next few years, as he tries to hit his goal of making it to the majors by the time he is 19.
17. John Gil – SS
How he got to the Braves: 2023 International free agent
The big piece of the Braves 2023 international free agent class was Luis Guanipa, but he wasn’t the only promising young bat the club signed two years ago. A skinny Dominican infielder who signed for $110k in that period and then opened eyes with a .795 OPS and 20 steals in the DSL that summer has established himself as a prospect to watch.
That kid is John Gil, and the right-handed speedster put together a similarly solid line in the FCL in his age-18 season in 2024. Gil went on to hit .286/.403/.389 with 26 steals in 211 plate appearances. Gil impressed with his ability to draw walks and get on base, drawing 28 walks against 34 strikeouts against slightly older competition. He did well enough that he earned a promotion to full season ball. He didn’t fare as well in Low-A, slashing .204/.298/.256 with 14 steals in 159 plate appearances – but he did continue to draw walks at a good rate, with 19 more in Augusta. Combined he hit .250/.358/.330 with 40 steals, 14 doubles, a triple, three homers, 47 walks, and 71 strikeouts in 370 plate appearances, mostly all at shortstop with a handful of games at third as well.
Gil won’t turn 19 until mid-May and is expected to begin the season back in Low-A. He is going to need to to work on refining his hit tool, which has the potential to be an above-average tool at maturity, but needs the typical work a player so young requires. He will also need to continue to tap into his power, though the limited power we saw from him last year isn’t a reason to worry considering his age. He’s a plus-plus runner who has a chance to stick at short because of that, but could potentially move elsewhere. At this point there is a lot to like, but he remains a bit of a lottery ticket just because he is so young and needs refinement in a couple areas – but the ceiling is very high because of his potential hit tool and speed.
16. Carter Holton – LHP
How he got to the Braves: 2024 2nd round pick
Following the surprise selection of Cam Caminiti in the first round, the Braves came back with another surprise as they were able to draft, and afford, Carter Holton from Vanderbilt in the 2024 MLB draft. Standing at 5’11” the Braves went with an undersized lefty with average success in the SEC at powerhouse Vanderbilt. In his junior year, the year he was draft, Carter was 6-5 with a 5.19 ERA but with those rough numbers came a clear vision for the Braves – a rising strikeout rate (12.7 K/9), dwindling walk rate (3.5 BB/9), and while limiting opponents to 8 hits per 9.
Carter could get his fastball up to 98 MPH, though he sits more in the mid 90s, and pairs that with an outstanding slider, average to above average curveball, and changeup. Combine that with a control grade sitting at 50 and you have a clear first round pick. However, his size and injury concerns docked him – which led to him dropping to the Braves in the second round. There is reliever risk due to his size and mechanics but the logic behind the pick was crystal clear.
After being drafted – Carter made one appearance for the Augusta GreenJackets where he pitched in two innings, struck out three, but walked four and gave up three earned runs. He will likely begin the season in Augusta with a very quick promotion to Rome should he show success. Despite the reliever risk there is a lot to like about Carter and he looks to have a bright future ahead of himself.
15. Blake Burkhalter – RHP
How he got to the Braves: 2022 MLB Draft, 2nd Compensation Round
Blake Burkhalter has as good a chance as any Braves prospect to end up in Atlanta due to his repetoire, his age and his potential to stick in a big league bullpen. Unfortunately, that potential has been significantly dinged due to his inability to stay healthy.
Coming out of Auburn, Burkhalter was consistently hitting the upper-90’s with his fastball while showcasing an excellent feel for a hard cutter late in the season during the Tigers’ run to the 2022 College World Series. After taking him with a compensatory pick, the Braves decided to give Burkhalter the chance to start. Burkhalter made all of two appearances — one start — with Low-A Augusta before his velocity dipped and the Braves ultimately announced he required Tommy John surgery, which sidelined him for all of the 2023 campaign.
The Braves eased Burkhalter back onto the mound following surgery, giving him a couple of starts at the Florida Complex League where he didn’t perform very well — albeit in a small sample size. When he got the bump to High-A Rome, Burkhalter’s stuff finally took off as he showed that potential the Braves saw in him. Across 14 starts for the Braves, the 24-year-old posted a 2.71 ERA, striking out 63 batters to just 16 walks in 69.2 innings.
While health remains the biggest question mark surrounding Burkhalter, his velocity has remained in the mid-90’s since coming back from TJS, and he’s also shown that same ability to command his cutter and other secondary offerings.
To begin his 2025 season, Burkhalter will most likely begin back in Rome with a good chance to expeditiously move up to Double-A Mississippi and beyond if he’s able to show his health and progression is for real. Burkhalter will be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft in December, so it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see the Braves add him to their 40-man roster at some point this season to avoid a team swooping in and taking a chance on the high-upside arm.
14. Didier Fuentes – RHP
How he got to the Braves: Signed as International Free Agent in 2022
Didier Fuentes’ start to his professional career can best be characterized as a rollercoaster ride. As a member of the Braves’ Dominican Summer League squad at 17-years-old, Fuentes looked like a potential star. In 11 starts, the young righty tossed 44 innings of 2.25 ERA ball to go along with 50 strikeouts and 10 walks.
However, after making the jump stateside in 2023, things got real in a hurry for Fuentes. Through 10 games — seven starts — with Low-A Augusta, he posted an abysmal 7.27 ERA while striking out 27 batters and walking a gaudy 12 in just 26 innings. While his FIP was a tad bit better at 6.01, it appeared on the surface as though Fuentes simply wasn’t ready for that jump after all.
Then, in 2024 as he repeated Low-A ball, Fuentes turned things around in a huge way. Making 17 starts on the mound and one appearance out of the bullpen, Fuentes posted a 2.74 ERA (3.31 FIP) across 75.2 innings while drastically increasing his strikeout rate. Over the course of the season, Fuentes struck out 98 batters — good for a 11.66 K/9 ratio to go along with a BB/9 ratio of 2.50. Fuentes primarily used a fastball/slider combination throughout 2024 while flashing a pretty basic feel for a mid-80’s splitter.
Long-term, Fuentes has the outlook of a starter just based on his ability to throw strikes and his feel for at least three pitches. While normally his stature — 6-foot, 170-pounds — would be enough to cause concern about durability as a starter, Fuentes has shown he’s capable of staying healthy while going deeper and deeper into games. The Braves probably give Fuentes the nod to begin 2025 with Rome, where he will most likely remain for the duration of the season — barring some otherworldly performance. However, Atlanta hasn’t been shy about pushing pitchers they like in order to see if they’re up for the challenge, and given his history, Fuentes feels like a prime candidate for that treatment.
13. Drue Hackenberg – RHP
How he got to the Braves: 2023 MLB Draft, 2nd round
The Braves created a splash with the Drue Hackenberg pick, not only taking him in the second round in 2023 where he was seen as a reach, but giving him a $2,000,000 signing bonus to entice him away from two more seasons of college eligibility. When Hackenberg got off to a slow start to the season concerns about the Braves decision to pay him started becoming louder, but a fantastic two and a half months, along with one of the best starts any Braves minor leaguer has ever put to turf, has helped to assuage some of the calls for the time being. Hackenberg had a mediocre sophomore season with Virginia Tech, where an inflated run environment led to him allowing a 5.80 ERA and had him projected to go as a day two pick in the draft. The Braves ignored this, seeing Hackenberg’s athletic talent, frame, and acumen for location as reasons to go high on him. The Braves quickly took to busying themselves with reshaping his arsenal, focusing on switching him to throwing four seam fastballs up in the zone rather than the sinkers he utilized in college, and the early returns were a mixed bag of growing pains. As a whole Hackenberg’s command regressed, and during the early season walks piled up in High-A where he wasn’t able to dominate on a consistent basis like some of his peers. Despite command issues continuing to crop up the adjustments finally came to fruition mid-summer, and from June 1st to his promotion to Gwinnett following his August 22nd start Hackenberg had an incredible run with a 31.1% striekout rare, 8.6% walk rate, and 2.46 FIP in 12 starts. He ended the season in Gwinnett where he struggled more than the numbers might indicate, although his six innings of seven strikeout, one walk baseball against the Bisons was impressive,
Hackenberg sits in a weird zone headed into Triple-A, where he could be just one adjustment away from flourishing into a player that fits into the back end of Atlanta’s rotation nicely or where he could fall off of the map. Hackenberg’s 16 strikeout performance on July 21st was unbelievable, a show of what he can do when he located his fastball and curveball appropriately, but more often than not he sprayed the zone with fastballs and would go through frustrating stretches where he found himself in bad counts. None of his secondaries have separated themselves as strikeout pitches, with the Braves focused heavily on his fastball and sinker command as they often do with pitchers at this level. Hackenberg averaged 93.9 mph on his fastball and 93.5 mph on his sinker in his four Triple-A starts, combining to utilize those pitches 57.1% of the time.
Hackenberg’s curveball has big movement and is the pitch that tends to get the most whiffs, but his command of the pitch is the worst of his five as he struggles to harness that movement and keep it below the zone without bouncing it or leaving it well off of the plate glove side. His most consistent secondary pitch is his cutter, which averages around 90 mph, and showed steady improvement both in command and movement throughout the season. It has shown flashes of being an above-average pitch that plays well off of his four seam fastball, and he went to it with more and more confidence as the year went on. His changeup is a distant fifth, with a velocity separation of around only 4-5 mph from his fastballs, though he did improve the movement and command of the pitch throughout the year. It certainly has value being utilized to keep left handed hitters off balance, but so far the Braves seem content in most cases to use the cutter in on the hands of lefties instead of his changeup. Hackenberg has quite a lot of work to do to command his pitches better, but at this stage he has five pitches that could all mix in a major league lineup and project him to a 4th or 5th starter as soon as this summer.