Let’s catch up on some of the news that you may have missed this week.
Tate’s making up for lost time
Among the Braves contingent in the Arizona Fall League is top shortstop prospect Tate Southisene, Atlanta’s first-round pick in 2025, and he’s showing why he’s in the team’s “big three” prospects along with outfielder Eric Hartman and lefty pitcher Cam Caminiti.
Playing for Glendale, Southisene’s hitting .261/.393/.391 with a double, a triple, and six runs scored in just seven games. Getting a late start as he was waiting to be cleared from the broken wrist he suffered in his very first Double-A game this summer, he didn’t debut until the second week of the Desert Dogs schedule but is making up for lost time, cementing the mechanical changes he implemented after a rough post-draft debut last year.
“Coming in, I was a big handsy guy, big stride, a lot of moving pieces,” Southisene told MLB Pipeline from Glendale. “I was just able to tone those down and be able to look in the zone. For me, when my swing was a little sharper, it was easier for me to recognize spin, see the pitch in the right zone, see the pitch where I needed it to be, so cleaning up the swings also cleaned up my approach.”
Joining Southisene in the Desert Dogs lineup from the Braves system is Owen Carey, who is 7-17 with more walks (five) than strikeouts (three) in his seven games for Glendale, as well as Isaiah Drake, who has a .499 OPS through ten games so far. Both outfielders are trying to make up for lost time due to injury, with Carey missing nearly two months in Double-A with a heel injury and Drake being sidelined with a sprained thumb that limited him to just 68 games this season.
On the pitching side, while Briggs McKenzie has been trying to shake off the rust from his midseason injury, putting up a 5.79 ERA through his first four starts, reliever Tyler LaPorte has allowed three hits and just one unearned run through his first 5.1 innings. Not bad for the AFL’s oldest player, at the virtually ancient age of…29. Fellow Braves reliever Owen Hackman has acquitted himself well in the dry air of the Arizona desert, allowing just one earned run in his first eight innings of relief work while striking out four.
(And on McKenzie: Yeah the ERA’s not great, but he did pitch five scoreless innings with four strikeouts in one of those four starts.)
An easy out from Hyers?
Today is exactly two years to the day from the hire of Tim Hyers, with Atlanta’s offense putting up a .246/.315/.404 line, a 99 wRC+, in his two years at the helm.
He also signed a two-year deal at the time, so as of today, the Braves technically don’t have a hitting coach (unless there was a different end date in the contract, to cover a potential World Series run.)
There’s a lot of frustration among the fanbase with the performance of Hyers, with many thinking that the offense’s lack of improvement should fall on his feet. And it’s true that the Braves have immensely struggled to get on base, with an 8.5% walk rate in his tenure (16th in that span); Alex Anthopoulos pointed out in his end-of-season press conference that the lack of on-base was one of the reasons for the offense’s lack of reliability.
“We had a good year offensively, just streaky, right? Very, very streaky across the board. [...] We’re top 10 in the majors in runs, top 10 in the majors in average, top 10 in the majors in slug. I think we’re 11th in strikeout rate in the major leagues. Our on-base was not good, so you’d like to get that better.”
But when you look at the track record of Hyers, his first season was much better than his second, as Anthopoulos admitted. “Second half of last year, I think we were top five in on-base, so we showed the ability to do that. And then in the playoffs, we had more walks than any playoff team. We had 30 walks in the playoffs. We were second in on-base in the playoffs.”
He’s right; Atlanta’s .327 on-base percentage in the 2nd half of 2025 was a top-five mark. How much of that was personnel, with both Jurickson Profar (15.3% walk rate) and a healthy Ronald Acuña Jr.(17.8% BB) in the lineup on an everyday basis?
And in October, Atlanta drew 30 walks in just seven games, with their 11.6% walk rate being the best of all postseason teams (entering the start of the World Series; Milwaukee is 2nd at 11.2%).
Is that enough to give Hyers a one-year extension, especially if they reinforce the lineup with Profar and/or some other high-on-base bat? As we’ve discussed a few times by this point, reinforcing a high-slug offense with multiple on-base threats is a better strategy than attempting to convert your sluggers into high-walk hitters.
Former Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki, who hit 26 home runs and also ran a 12.8% walk rate last year, might be the best option on the market, but former Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena (26 homers, 10.1% BB) and even Suzuki’s running mate Ian Happ (24 homers, 12.7% walk rate) could also fill that same role for Atlanta.
If the Braves had one of those three bats in left field, Jurickson Profar at designated hitter, and a healthy Ronald Acuña Jr. putting up his usual 11.9% walk rate with 40-homer potential, are we rethinking the job security of Tim Hyers?
I’m hoping the Braves will make an announcement sometime soon.
Olson’s award-winning defense
Matt Olson is the first Braves player to win an award this winter, being named the Fielding Bible winner at first base this year. Given out by Sports Info Solutions to one player at each position, Olson has won it six times in his career, a record for a first baseman. He’s now tied with former Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons and former Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina for the 2nd-most all-time. Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts has the record, winning seven Fielding Bible awards, which are in their 21st year.
Olson finished at 11 Defensive Runs Saved, trailing Padres first baseman Ty France’s 15, but a panel of experts voted Olson to win the award over France. Other defensive analytics are in favor of the upset vote; Per Baseball Savant, Olson’s +12 Fielding Run Value was a 95th percentile mark for all defenders in baseball last year and led all first basemen, with France coming in 2nd at +10.
Winning the Fielding Bible award establishes Olson as the front-runner for the Rawlings Gold Glove, to be given out in early November, as well. Olson has won three Gold Gloves in his career, taking the AL Gold Glove back-to-back in 2018 & 2019 and then winning it in Atlanta last year. France won it last year as well, taking the American League Gold Glove in a season divided between Minnesota and Toronto.
Profar’s in winter ball
As I discussed on social media last week, Jurickson Profar has popped back up on the radar to play baseball. The outfielder, who missed all of 2026 amidst his second PED suspension, is officially playing winter ball for Tiburones De La Guaira in Venezuela.
If that name’s familiar to you, it’s probably because that’s the same winter ball team that Ronald Acuña Jr. famously joins every winter for a limited stretch.
As Anthopoulos discussed at the same end-of-season press conference, no decision has been made on the future of Profar, who is signed for the 2027 season at a $15M guaranteed salary. No one’s seen him or even spoken to him during the suspension - he reportedly changed his phone number and his Braves teammates didn’t have it - so seeing what he looks like in game action will be important for Atlanta’s front office as they determine next steps for the 33-year-old outfielder.