McCabe leads the best of the rising top prospects in the system.
Almost a month of minor league baseball is in the books, and it’s been a curious year for Atlanta Braves prospects. Four of the top six prospects in the system have been either injured or in Atlanta for most of the year, and that’s led to a somewhat weaker crop of players to watch on a daily basis than normal. Add in a poor opening week for pitchers and there weren’t a lot of early standouts, but my has that changed recently. The pitchers are starting to dial in and put up great outings, and across the system there has been more offense than the organization has seen in many years.
Arrow Up
David McCabe – The offensive performances in 2025 have far outpaced what we saw last year, yet even with a number of players seeming to step forward it has been David McCabe who is front and center among improved prospects. Even though he’s been a bit slower the last week and a half McCabe has maintained some of the best numbers in the Southern League, including the best strikeout-to-walk ratio and highest on base percentage among players with 50 or more at bats. He also sits in the top third in the league by isolated power. McCabe’s struggles in 2024, his age, and his lack of defensive projection knocked him down a ton, but he’s a different animal this season. He’s getting better results on fastballs and his always impressive swing decisions are allowing him to control every plate appearance. The next step will be getting him to lift the ball pull side more, but right now he’s showing off the ability to hit the ball hard, make contact at an above average rate, and put up elite on base numbers.
Jhancarlos Lara – Lara’s 11.68 ERA and 6.18 FIP may make this seem to be an odd inclusion, but upon reviewing his starts in detail I have actually been thoroughly impressed with Lara’s pitching this season. The walks have been undoubtedly awful, but much of it is him going through short spans of at bats where he completely loses all command. He tends to get out of the game mentally and allow the game to speed up, but the Braves are taking serious steps to slow him down and keep him level. Lara is a serious competitor who has shown some signs of this before, and has at every level taken to whatever corrective action the Braves have implemented. I have no reason to believe he won’t continue to make those necessary improvements. On the field his production is impossibly good. He’s running a total whiff rate of 44.6% this season, and his fastball has somehow taken another step forward and has forced whiffs on 63.6% of swings. He is overwhelming hitters in a way no Braves prospect since Spencer Strider has been able to do, and a smidge of composure is a lot easier to teach than Lara’s raw talent.
Owen Carey – The 2025 draft has already shown it could be the home of a few big steals, and Carey has been the most impressive of the group. Carey won’t turn 19 until July and comes from a cold weather high school, yet has shown the most advanced hit tool and strike zone recognition of any prep bat the Braves have drafted in years. Carey has the athleticism to play three outfield position, controls the strike zone well, and is able to hit the ball hard to the pull side with some potential for average to solid average power. Like many 18 year olds Carey doesn’t do a great job of lifting fly balls pull side just yet, but that’s far from a reason to get concerned at this point. Carey flat out rakes and has shown enough to already deserve top 30 recognition.
Isaiah Drake – In some ways Isaiah Drake’s progress is obvious on paper. He has cut his strikeout rate from over 35% to just 18.3%, he’s pulling the ball 25% more often, and all of the underlying contact and swing decision metrics support the strong performance in 2025 thus far. However I still think the numbers sell him short. Drake has revamped his swing to hit the ball harder pull side and up the middle, and though the power hasn’t shown on the field the power in his swing is there. It’s only a matter of time before Drake has a big breakthrough and starts producing at an even higher level, and he’s done plenty to prove the Braves faith in him correct.
Didier Fuentes – Fuentes is basically stock up every time we do one of these. He’s far too good to be as young as he is, and with the Braves having him use his changeup more often in 2025 we could see him go even higher. The first start of the year was a tough one for Fuentes, but between the spring breakout game and what he’s done this year it’s clear he’s taken yet another step forward. His fastball velocity is more consistent without him sacrificing command, and he’s missing bats at a higher rate in 2025. The bump to Double-A was aggressive but deserved as his stuff and present command is too good to be challenged by High-A hitters. This will be the first major test for Fuentes, but there is no reason to believe he can’t continue his meteoric rise.
Arrow Down
Luis Guanipa – I like to remain lenient on guys early in the season so these arrow down players are tough, but Guanipa is unfortunately in a tough situation. Getting hurt after three games and missing multiple weeks of action is a setback for a young player, and comes on the heels of him also missing time in 2024. When he was on the field he was making bunches of contact, but he really hasn’t been hitting the ball hard at A-ball. There is still plenty of reason to remain patient with Guanipa, but we’ve yet to really see anything from him in full season ball.
Drue Hackenberg – Hackenberg really needs this to be his year, because with the wave including Fuentes, Blake Burkhalter, Lucas Braun, and JR Ritchie behind him he could quickly be passed by in the pecking order for a major league job. Hackenberg hasn’t yet taken the step forward in his command that he needs to excelt, despite showing some flashes in Double-A that he might be breaking out last year. He’s not missing bats right now, but I also think the Braves are being particular about his pitch usage. With him throwing an overwhelming number of fastballs and sliders this season he’s been predictable, and that combined with his command issues has hurt him. He’s better than this, but still needs to start going forward with his command.
Adam Maier – I hate it, but I’m at the point of jumping ship on Maier. The velocity and command haven’t gone forward as much as I had hoped they would this year and it’s been rough for him down in Rome. His slider and changeup have fantastic potential, but with no fastball or command to pitch off of it’s been a struggle to get swings and misses. Maybe a change in approach could suit him, but until he starts locating pitches better he’s going to struggle.
Jeremy Reyes – Injuries are the unfortunate part of the life cycle of a pitcher, and Jeremy Reyes has been plagued by them early on. That call up last June was an exciting time and he quickly showed potential, but after leaving early in his fourth start then and getting injured in his first this year, he’s now only pitches 17 2⁄3 innings over the past 10 1⁄2 months. Reyes has potential but you never like to see a pitcher miss this much time so early in his career, and given how many players have burst on to the scene Reyes is going to struggle to stay on top 30 lists.
JR Ritchie – Ritchie hasn’t really done much to move his projections so this is a very, very soft down arrow. Ritchie is just a victim of me having overinflated expectations for him. There is a clear positive for Ritchie in that the fastball velocity is back to pre-surgery levels, and that was one of the two main questions to answer. The second is command, and so far it hasn’t been great particularly on his slider and changeup. Ritchie’s inability to consistently land his secondaries has caused him issues with getting swing-and-miss on a consistent basis early in the year. I think Ritchie will be fine with a bit more time, I had just expected given the player we saw last year and the velocity from spring breakout that he could do well enough to get the treatment that Fuentes has.