This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ATLANTA -- Before Mike Yastrzemski took the spotlight in Friday night’s 10-inning win over the Red Sox, my story was going to have a National League Rookie of the Year theme.
You had 2022 NL ROY Michael Harris II and 2025 NL ROY Drake Baldwin hitting home runs to create a lead for 2022 NL ROY runner-up Spencer Strider. Then, 2026 NL ROY candidate Didier Fuentes earned the win with his scoreless 10th.
One of the reasons the Braves’ farm system has been ranked near the bottom over recent years is the fact that an abundance of their young talent has already been in the Majors. And the days of this organization’s pipeline not rating well are over.
The scouting and development departments that found and cultivated the likes of Strider, Baldwin, Harris, Fuentes, Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep and others are still doing their thing. Last year’s first-round pick Tate Southisene is off to a great start, and Eric Hartman is ruling Rome much like Julius Caesar once did.
But before digging into the success of this next wave of prospects, let’s look at how impressive the Draft selections of Harris, Strider, Baldwin and Bryce Elder were.
2019 MLB Draft
Harris (3rd round)
The Braves center fielder entered Sunday with a 15.4 career bWAR. The only 2019 selections with a higher mark were Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (25.1), Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson (21.3), D-backs outfielder Corbin Carroll (17.5) and Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman (15.8).
2020 MLB Draft
Strider (4th round), Elder (5th round)
The Draft consisted of just five rounds in 2020 and the Braves had just four picks. Safe to say, they did about as well as anyone could have expected with the selection of these two All-Star pitchers.
Entering Sunday, here were the top three bWAR numbers produced by players selected that year:
• Garrett Crochet: 11.4
• Pete Crow-Armstrong:10.5
• Strider: 8.3
Strider missed nearly all of 2024 and he was limited last year, when he returned from the previous year’s right elbow surgery. Based on the way he pitched in his past two starts (at Dodgers and vs. Red Sox), there’s reason to believe he’ll remain near the top of this list and quite possibly be sitting alone at the top by the time he retires.
Elder has a 4.5 bWAR. Beyond the three players listed above, the only other 2020 selections with a higher mark thus far are Cardinals shortstop Masyn Wynn (8), Rangers outfielder Evan Carter (5.5), Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg (5.1) and Angels pitcher Reid Detmers (5).
There’s also a good chance Elder rises higher than eighth on this list. He ranks seventh in the Majors with a 2.01 ERA this year. He also owns MLB’s sixth-best ERA entering Sunday (2.35) going back to Aug. 24 of last year.
2022
Baldwin (third round)
Baldwin’s 5.6 bWAR ranks second among all 2022 selections, trailing only Angels shortstop Zach Neto (12.9), who has played approximately 230 more games than the Braves catcher.
As for the future, it may be even brighter than it seemed when I typed these words on March 2: The [Braves’] Top 12 [prospects] are as strong as I’ve seen in the system in recent memory. Even if [JR] Ritchie graduates this year, I think the Braves could have 4-5 of MLB’s Top 100 prospects next year.
Fuentes (No. 78), Ritchie (No. 61) and Cam Caminiti (No. 49) currently represent the Braves within MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects. Even if Ritchie graduates within the next couple weeks, I think you could see John Gil, Owen Murphy and possibly Hartman be part of this list before next season.
Hartman entered Sunday hitting .319 with 12 homers and a 1.078 OPS for High-A Rome. The 2024 20th-round selection will need to continue proving himself. But it’s safe to say this 19-year-old Canadian will rank much higher than 20th in the Braves’ system when the next rankings are released.