News Roundup: Atlanta Makes Interesting Minor League Add, but Hold Off of Relief Signing
With pitchers and catchers reporting just next week, there's a clear green light to make another add without sacrificing depth to do it
We’re almost there: Pitchers and catchers report next Wednesday.
While we won’t be in North Port for the first day the clubhouse is open to the media (I have a prior commitment back home), we’re still going to be excited to see the video and comments coming out of Braves camp as the players report. While position players aren’t required to be there until the first full-squad workout on Tues, Feb 18th, many of them report early to get a head start on their season prep. (Ronald Acuña Jr. is already in North Port - MLB reporter Hector Gómez shared this video of Ronald doing sprints at the team facility)
Let’s run down some of the news of the week.
Tyler LaPorte is an intriguing signing, but he won’t factor into the major league pen this year
The Braves brought in indy ball pitcher Tyler LaPorte and assigned him to the complex level. While a 28-year-old who has never appeared in affiliated baseball wouldn’t normally even warrant a mention, LaPorte’s intriguing for a few reasons. A pretty accomplished hitter in college, being named SWAC Co-Player of the Year in 2019 after hitting .349/.389/.489 as an infielder, he converted to the mound and has spent the last two seasons thriving with the Windy City Thunderbolts of the Frontier League. Last season, he appeared in thirty-nine games and struck out 52 batters in 35.2 relief innings. Even more impressively than stepping into the closing role midseason and logging 13 saves is that he didn’t allow a single homer all year.
Off of the Trackman data (supplied by the man himself), LaPorte features a 97-mph heater backed up by a sinker, changeup, and sweepy-ish slider. The sinker gets a ton of armside run (17.4 inches) at 95 mph, while the sweeper features over 20 inches the opposite direction. Combined with his low release point, I can see how the fastball will play up and the rest of the arsenal can move off of barrels laterally. It’s an intriguing combo.
There’s a short but significant track record of the Braves finding success with unaffiliated baseball pitchers - Kerry Ligtenberg put up a 3.04 ERA and 44 saves after being signed by Atlanta out of indy ball, while the Braves signed former first-round pick Tyler Matzek out of indy ball and he almost singlehandedly drug them to the World Series in 2021 with a dominant performance against the Dodgers in the NLCS.
What the Braves didn’t do, however, is sign a major league free agent for their bullpen. With a full 40-man roster, any guaranteed deal requires the team to jettison some depth.
But on Wednesday, once pitchers and catchers report, Joe Jiménez could be moved to the 60-day injured list and a 40-man spot is available. The way that AA’s stashed depth this season, I wouldn’t expect a deal to come across the wire until Wednesday at the earliest.
(We broke down two of the likeliest candidates, David Robertson and Kyle Finnegan, on Friday’s podcast in the second segment.)
Braves prospect rankings have a new consensus #1
There are eight new prospect lists in the last week or two, and the most common #1 prospect on them is catcher Drake Baldwin, taking six of the eight spots and not appearing anywhere lower than third.
(Shameless plug: I compiled all of the trustworthy prospect lists into a single spreadsheet, which we’re calling the Braves Prospect Composite. Check it out.)
As I discussed on the podcast on Thursday, I still don’t expect Baldwin to spend significant time in the majors this season barring an injury to Sean Murphy. AA has gone on the record multiple times about how he wants young catchers to get as much high minors time as possible, while the Braves have Chadwick Tromp and Curt Casali in camp as potential backups at the major league level for 2025.
Despite all of the promise Baldwin has, he is currently sitting on just 44 career AAA starts behind the plate. Bringing him up to sit on the bench and start every third day just doesn’t jive with the well-stated position of Anthopoulos to give a young catcher as much development time as they reasonably can before the player needs to be inserted in the major league lineup.
While I do think Baldwin and Murphy are in a C/DH timeshare in 2026, I just don’t see it happening this year unless Murphy misses significant time.
This week’s content
Busy week of content for us. Here’s a rundown of what we discussed either in this newsletter or on the podcast.
(The Braves Today show can be found on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts)
Last weekend: Atlanta’s NRIs, Spring Breakout roster (both newsletters)
Monday: Outfield projections, including when Ronald Acuña Jr. is planning on returning to the lineup (podcast)
Tuesday: Corner infield projections (podcast)
Wednesday: Middle infield projections and potential upgrades (podcast)
Thursday: Catcher projections and the backup battle (podcast), Questions for Nacho Alvarez to answer in 2025 (newsletter)
Friday: Possible reliever signings in free agency and the timeframe for those (podcast), the Braves Prospect Composite (newsletter)
We’ve got quite a few newsletters planned for next week - a final pre-spring roster projection and rotation outlook, as well as a potential 2027/2028 lineup. On the podcast, it’s pitcher projection week so we’ll be diving into the likely outcomes for the rotation as well as discussing who could step up this year in the Atlanta bullpen.
Enjoy your weekend, folks.