BREAKING: Braves Schwellenbach, Harris Look Like Superstars in the Making

The Atlanta Braves have been a superstar factory for quite a long time. The remarkable number of homegrown players to become All-Stars in the big leagues over the years is a testament to a front office and scouting department that has long had a keen eye for identifying elite talent.

All the top products of the Braves machine had a breakout season in which they took their game to new heights, advancing from good player to household name. Chipper Jones had a strong rookie year in 1995, but upped his OPS by .120 in 1996 for the first of seven consecutive top-12 MVP finishes. Freddie Freeman broke out in 2013 after two solid-but-not-star-worthy years to begin his career, raising his numbers across the board and becoming a first-time All-Star. More recently, Spencer Strider stamped his name as a top-tier starting pitcher in a wild 2023 season that included a 20-5 record, 281 strikeouts in 186 2/3 innings, and a fourth-place Cy Young Award finish.

Entering 2025, the Braves’ roster contains an intriguing mix of established stars and young guys with considerable upside. Today we focus on two players that fall into the latter category. Braves fans know their names already, but they may have yet to endear themselves to the more casual MLB fan. They possess all the traits of an MLB superstar, but just need to put it all together over a full season. Without further ado, here are two young Braves who could make the jump to becoming superstars at their positions during the upcoming season.

Two Braves Who Could Soon Become Superstars

Spencer Schwellenbach

Schwellenbach, 24, has less than a full year of experience at the major league level, but makes this list anyway. That’s how extraordinary his 2024 rookie season was. To fully appreciate his performance, it bears remembering that Schwellenbach is still relatively new to pitching, as crazy as that sounds. He was a position player in college at Nebraska, and only started pitching during his junior year when he served as the Cornhuskers’ closer with dominant results in 31 2/3 innings. The Braves liked what they saw enough to make Schwellenbach their second-round pick in 2021 and convert him to a full-time hurler, but the righty was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery just months after being drafted.

After returning with a surgically repaired elbow in 2023, Schwellenbach proceeded to destroy the lower levels of the minor leagues for 110 innings. The Braves were so impressed that they called him up directly from Double-A Mississippi in May of last year following a slew of injuries to the back end of the rotation. “Exceed” is not a strong enough word to describe his performance relative to the expectations. Schwellenbach posted a 3.35 ERA, 1.043 WHIP, and just one HR/9 in 123 2/3 innings- already excellent numbers for a rookie pitcher, and mindblowing ones when considering his lack of innings thrown since high school. Additionally, the underlying metrics suggest it was all legitimate: 3.44 xERA, 3.29 FIP/3.34 xFIP, 3.42 SIERA.

A Star in the Making

Schwellenbach dominates with a six-pitch mix that includes, in order of times thrown last year, a four-seamer, slider, cutter, curveball, splitter, and sinker. While none of the six grade out as elite offerings on their own, his pinpoint command of the whole arsenal and ability to effectively tunnel pitches off one another is what led to his success. Schwellenbach has a rare ability to live in the zone (4.6 BB%) while also missing bats consistently (34.2 chase %). To think that both statistics could improve further as he continues to develop a feel for his pitches is tantalizing.

One potential adjustment to look for in his sophomore campaign is a higher percentage of splitters, which he threw only 12.8% of the time last year and almost exclusively to lefties. It was a devastating weapon in generating a .147 batting average and .218 xWOBA against, and could help the youngster ascend further if he decides to rely on it more moving forward.

Tabbing Schwellenbach as a potential breakout superstar for the Braves is not an unpopular take. In fact many major outlets have already done so at times this offseason. His advanced feel for pitching, deep arsenal, and stellar command are impossible to overlook. Schwellenbach has shown no signs of slowing down in Grapefruit League play, carrying a 2.41 ERA and 0.857 WHIP with 26 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings entering his final spring start on Monday. It may seem ambitious for such an inexperienced arm, but we could realistically be looking at a top-five starter in all of MLB by season’s end if he continues to push his ceiling.

Spencer Schwellenbach racks up 10 Ks for the @Braves 🔥

Think he's ready for the regular season? pic.twitter.com/XI2F6jRgvs

— MLB (@MLB) March 20, 2025

Michael Harris II

The baseball community at large has been acquainted with Harris, also 24, for some time now, and he is generally regarded as one of the most exciting young talents in the sport. However, the full-fledged breakout has yet to come since the Stockbridge, GA, native announced his presence with an NL Rookie of the Year campaign in 2022. Like Schwellenbach, Harris was called up straight from Double-A that year and posted an outstanding .297/.339/.514 slash line with 19 home runs, 20 steals, and stellar defense in center field over 114 games. Braves fans immediately assumed they had a left-handed version of Ronald Acuña Jr. on their hands.

Harris saw his slash line and counting stats fall slightly in 2023, but he made significant improvements in areas such as strikeout rate and hitting lefties. Then, in 2024 he had the worst season of his brief career with a .264/.304/.418 and a 99 OPS+. While the three-year decline is slightly concerning, a peek under the hood shows that Harris’ development really isn’t off track at all. For one, Harris suffered a hamstring injury in June that caused him to miss two months and had a clear effect on his batting and baserunning value when he returned. Additionally, he greatly underperformed his expected stats all year (.312 WOBA/.344 xWOBA). These were closer to his rookie year numbers and suggest he was hit by some major batted-ball bad luck.

Is This the Year Harris Puts it All Together?

Money Mike’s calling card in his short career has been his defense in center field, which has been elite since he stepped on a big league field. His range and arm strength consistently rank among the game’s best and will continue to for the foreseeable future, giving him a solid overall floor. He also proved himself as a great runner with upper 90s percentile baserunning run value and 20 steals in each of 2022 and 2023 before the balky hamstring slowed him down last year. The only thing missing is a big breakout at the plate, which Harris has flashed repeatedly throughout his time with the Braves. If/when it happens, we could be looking at an elite, five-tool superstar.

There is reasonable optimism for the breakout to occur this year if Harris is able to play a full season. While his chase rate remains poor, Harris’s batted ball metrics have stayed consistently elite his entire career. Some key numbers like expected batting average (.284) and hard hit percentage (47%) were even higher in 2024 than in his Rookie of the Year season, showing that Harris continues to develop nicely as a hitter even if the counting stats have suffered a bit recently.

Harris has looked comfortable this spring with a .333 batting average, two home runs, and two steals entering Monday’s action, and should get a chance to hit near the top of the order until Acuña makes his return in early May. If he keeps it up throughout the season, baseball pundits will be talking about Michael Harris II much differently this time around next year. He could be the next in a long line of Braves superstars.