'He's been fun to watch': Braves' Southisene has not missed a beat since returning to action in desert

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Between the white lines, Tate Southisene is chaos. He rips the baseball from gap to gap, runs the bases at maximum intensity and is constantly engaged defensively. It’s a funny juxtaposition for a 20-year-old who, once the game ends, is as cool and calm as they come. 

“He can do everything -- play defense, take his walks, steal second, third, hit a home run, hit a ball in the gap. He’s got power to all sides of the field, doesn't strike out a lot,” said Braves No. 29 prospect, Isaiah Drake, who has roomed with Southisene during the Arizona Fall League. 

“But he's a great dude too, my dog.”

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for the 22nd overall pick in the 2025 Draft. After making a rocky brief pro debut last summer with Single-A Augusta, he returned there to open ‘26 and played his way to High-A Rome by early June. His stint there was short lived as he soon proved advanced for the South Atlantic League circuit, which led to his Double-A Columbus debut on July 28. 

His arrival made him the first high school player from his class to touch the upper Minors. But it lasted just two plate appearances after a fastball bared in on his hands, breaking his right wrist and ending his regular season. Time eventually ran out for him to return to a Minor League field, but there was one place the Braves’ No. 3 prospect could get more at-bats to cap off his year: with the Glendale Desert Dogs in the AFL.

All told, it’s been a tremendously successful stint in the desert for Southisene, who entered the final week with a .321 average and .471 on-base percentage across 16 games. He has walked more times (14) than he struck out (12) and successfully swiped all seven bags that he attempted to snag, posting multiple sprint speeds above 29 ft/sec, a near-elite mark. 

“I think it's a credit to his work,” said Glendale coach Philip Caulfield, who also coached Southisene during his 38-game stint with Rome this year. “His instincts are very, very good. There's some things that he does at such a young age that you watch and it's hard to go out and teach those intangibles -- he picks them up very well. 

“The quality of his at-bats are outstanding, and then the quality of work he wants to put in every single day without question, without even really batting an eye at it [is impressive].”

“Phil told me early on in the season, ‘One thing about him is he never gives away at-bats,’” said Glendale hitting coach Aaron Hill, who also served as a hitting coach in the White Sox system during 2026. “It doesn't matter what the situation is, it doesn't matter what the score of the game is, he's in every pitch. Knowing that regardless of the outcome, regardless of the result, he's gonna give you a quality at-bat, it's great watching him. He's gonna be really good.” 

To hear coaches and teammates talk about Southisene, you’d assume MLB’s No. 58 prospect had years of pro reps under his belt, not just over 450 at-bats between the Minors and Fall League.

For as raw as many of those tools still are, he still managed to rank second among all qualified Braves Minor Leaguers with a 139 wRC+ this year, slashing .278/.408/.467 across his three stops. Despite his 5-foot-11, 180-pound stature, he’s hammered the ball as hard as anyone on the developmental prospect circuit, putting 20 of his 41 balls in play in excess of 95+ mph, topping out at 109.7.

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“He never hesitates to go to the cage and put extra work in,” Caulfield said of Southisene. “If it's another coach or myself, ‘Hey, Tate, we're gonna go work on this.’ I mean, he'll be beating us to the field. … He takes it upon himself. Becoming a professional at a young age, learning to do that is probably one of the hardest parts.” 

“The other day he was talking about wanting to be able to pull the ball in the air more,” Hill said of Southisene. “I'm like, ‘Bro, you stick to what you're doing, use the gaps, have good direction -- you catch it out in front, it's gonna go. Just stick to what you're doing, don't change a thing.’ 

“He's been fun to watch.”