With the 2025 MLB Draft less than a week out, I am once again reminded why this always has been and always will be complete and total snooze for me as an Atlanta Braves fan. I do not follow college baseball deeply enough to know who any of these players are.
Even more frustrating, the Braves have a way with their overall draft strategy. It is so incredibly cookie-cutter and by the book, and it’s come back to bite them this season.
Like we when it comes to fantasy football, I always try to take a running back in the first round in most seasons. The Braves prefer to take a pitcher with their first-round pick.
Since Alex Anthopoulos took over the front office in November 2017, he has participated in seven drafts for the Braves and made nine first-round picks. Of the nine first-round picks he made, seven of them were pitching prospects.
Here is every first-round pick made by the Anthopoulos front office in Atlanta. Do you see the issue?
| Year | Player | Position | School | Draft Pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Carter Stewart | RHP | Eau Gallie HS (Melboune, FL) | 8 |
| 2019 | Shea Langeliers | C | Baylor | 9 |
| 2019 | Braden Shewmake | SS | Texas A&M | 21 |
| 2020 | Jared Shuster | LHP | Wake Forest | 25 |
| 2021 | Ryan Cusick | RHP | Wake Forest | 24 |
| 2022 | Owen Murphy | RHP | Riverside Brookfield HS (Riverside, IL) | 20 |
| 2022 | JR Ritchie | RHP | Bainbridge HS (Bainbridge Island, WA) | 35 |
| 2023 | Hurston Waldrep | RHP | Florida | 24 |
| 2024 | Cam Caminiti | LHP | Saguaro HS (Scottsdale, AZ) | 24 |
Carter Stewart did not sign with the Braves and now plays in Japan. Shea Langeliers, Braden Shewmake, Jared Shuster and Ryan Cusick are all members of other MLB organizations. (Langeliers, in fairness, did help the team land Matt Olson from the Athletics.) While Owen Murphy, JR Ritchie, Hurston Waldrep and Cam Caminiti are still in the Atlanta organization, the only one I still have hope for being a major player for this team is Caminiti. This is a major Braves problem.
If you want your mind blown, here are the last seven non-pitchers the Braves took in the first round.
| Year | Player | Position | School | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Jason Heyward | OF | Henry County HS (McDonough, GA) | 14 |
| 2007 | Jon Gilmore | 3B | Iowa City HS (Iowa City, IA) | 33 |
| 2010 | Matthew Lipka | SS | McKinney HS (McKinney, TX) | 35 |
| 2014 | Braxton Davidson | OF | TC Roberson HS (Asheville, NC) | 32 |
| 2015 | Austin Riley | 3B | DeSoto Central HS (Southhaven, MS) | 41 |
| 2019 | Shea Langeliers | C | Baylor | 9 |
| 2019 | Braden Shewmake | SS | Texas A&M | 21 |
So, the only player the Braves have drafted in the first round that is actually contributing to this current team is Austin Riley. I understand that Atlanta does great with international signings and developing its late-round picks, but if the first-round methodology is this broken, then they should probably fix it. From John Schuerholz, to Frank Wren, to John Coppolella, to Anthopoulos, things will never change.
It almost feels like the Braves are so beholden to pitchers because of Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. And that could rear its head again heading into a 2025 draft class that seems hitter-heavy.
Atlanta Braves need to stop wasting their time draft first-round pitchers
Maybe it is the idea that a pitcher is more likely to make it to the Majors than a position player? I do not really understand the methodology here, but the Braves have more than quintupled down on this.
Regardless, every year or so, the Braves put forth a promising prospect at the big-league level and he usually makes it work. This year is it Drake Baldwin. Last year was Spencer Schwellenbach and so on.
While there are plenty of things the Braves do right when it comes to developing their own players at the Minor League level, I would hope they could do a better job of hitting on their first-round picks.
Not everybody is going to become Chipper Jones, but it should not be this unnecessarily difficult. Perhaps that is The Braves Way in a nutshell? To be as stubborn as humanly possible at all times.
I will say this: If the Braves draft a pitcher, I will be happy that he is on the only team that matters and I will hope that he can be a huge part of our team’s future, even though I have so much evidence to prove that on the contrary.
There are stud players to be had all over the country that are just begging to be picked by the Braves in the first round. I would really love a bat that can actually make contact, and most scouts seem to feel that this year’s draft class is deeper with position players than it is with pitchers.
You’d think that this would be the ideal time for Atlanta to break its draft tendencies, but given Anthopoulos’ recent history, I’m not holding my breath.
In the meantime, I will continue living my life in a world where prospects will never do anything for me.
