Prospect Development Notes: What Spring Is Telling Us

From JR Ritchie’s emergence to the Gil–Lodise dynamic, what we’ve learned this spring about Atlanta’s future core.

Every spring training game features minor leaguers, even the home games. The team will call up minor league players to supplement a roster of veterans who are typically limited to two or three at-bats per game at this stage of spring training.

On the road, there’s even more playing time available for prospects, as MLB teams just barely, if at all, adhere to MLB’s ‘four Major League regulars’ rule for road trips in spring training.

But not all minor leaguers are equal. There are six players we’ve seen in Grapefruit League play, all either up the middle or on the mound, who are all relevant to Atlanta’s future plans. Let’s talk about it.

Up the Middle

There are three players I want to highlight here: two shortstops and a centerfielder.

John Gil - SS - Likely 2026 Assignment: High-A

Gil has been one of the most frequently deployed Braves so far in Grapefruit League action, tied for the team lead in appearances with nine.

What I’ve seen is a player advanced beyond his years, doing a good job of handling some of the most advanced pitching he’s likely ever seen. There are whiffs here, but it’s been constrained to a 20% whiff rate and mostly from MLB or MLB-adjacent arms: Mick Abel of the Minnesota Twins got him twice, while teammate Connor Prielipp got him once in the same game. The other three were from higher-level relievers in various minor league systems, and only one of the six came on a fastball.

At the same time, his two hits are homers, both out to left. He hasn’t really had a chance to show off the wheels, having attempted only one steal, and has rarely been allowed to actually play shortstop. What I’m hearing is that the team is prioritizing evaluations of other players, either considered to be closer to the majors or having more questions about their defensive homes than Gil. That tracks with what we’ve seen from outside evaluators, with Baseball America having him as the 2nd best infield defender behind only Alex Lodise. Given how he’s visibly bulked up this offseason, though, the question is whether the added bulk affects that excellent lateral movement and if he can maintain his range.

Some of the DH work could also be so that Gil can work on his offense. Plagued by too many groundballs last year, Gil has been trying to add loft to his swing to turn some of his groundball outs into flyballs. So far in spring, Gil has eight batted ball events each, four of each type: two flyball outs & two home runs, paired with three groundball outs and one infield error.

Alex Lodise - SS - Likely 2026 Assignment: High-A

The player competing with Gil to be Atlanta’s next shortstop, potentially as soon as 2027 but likely 2028, is also getting plenty of run in spring training.

Lodise has gotten into seven games but taken only eight official at-bats, owing to several uses as a pinch hitter or pinch runner rather than as a defensive substitute to finish the game. Similarly to Gil, looking at process versus results is the way to go here, and what we’ve seen from Lodise so far has been an improved batter’s eye over his college and early professional sample from 2025. While he has an overall 31.5% whiff rate so far this spring, a lot of this is from early in camp - four of his six whiffs are from his first two games of spring training.

Monday’s 9th inning at-bat for Lodise against Ricky Vanasco of the Tigers illustrates this rapid improvement. Taking an elevated fastball for a called strike to open the at-bat, he then alternates taking sinkers and fastballs off the corners with being just late on in-zone but inconveniently located fastballs before making solid contact on a middle-away fastball. Something similar happened in his last at-bat on Wednesday, with Lodise fouling off a borderline pitch low but otherwise laying off of two pitches up and in as well as a slider down. While he eventually struck out on an elevated slider - something I mentioned last year was becoming more in vogue - it took nine pitches, and he mostly resisted the ever-present to expand his zone with chase.

It’s process over results for small sample sizes like this.

The decision to put both Lodise and Gil in High-A Rome is going to lead to some fascinating dynamics, both on the field and in the lineup. I like the idea of Gil and his 70-grade speed ahead of Lodise in the batting order, while the two of them rotating through shortstop should allow for not only great defense but also a natural competition that should benefit both players.

Diego Tornes - CF - Likely 2026 Assignment: Rookie ball to Single-A

The single biggest prospect surprise of the spring for me has been not one, but two Diego Tornes sightings. The 2025 international free agent played all of last season in the Dominican Summer League at the tender age of 17, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he spends his 18th birthday, coming in early July, playing for Augusta.

Again, this is a process over results observation here - he’s hitless in three official at-bats this spring, but appears to be holding his own. While his first at-bat against Colombia in Wednesday’s exhibition was marked by some weakness against changeups, he rebounded to force a ten-pitch at-bat in the bottom of the 7th before Colombia’s Ezequiel Zabaleta got him to chase a slider below the zone for strike three.

For me, it’s the rapid improvement - after watching Tornes struggle with changeups in the previous at-bat, Zabaleta opened the at-bat with three straight cambios before switching to the fastball and then alternating speeds back and forth, but Tornes wasn’t fooled a second time and maintained his plate discipline until the final slider got him out of his rhythm.

I’ve not seen much of him, given how little public video exists of DSL games. From the limited spring training reps and the video I’ve been sent, I’m seeing a hitter that seems to be able to make rapid adjustments, isn’t fazed by velocity, and can mostly recognize breaking stuff out of the hand but is still adjusting to the movement profiles you see stateside.

He’ll likely stay in extended spring training for a while before heading to Augusta, likely needing only a brief stop in rookie ball.

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On the Mound

Only one of these three are still in camp, but they’re all worth talking about.

JR Ritchie - RHP - Likely 2026 Assignment: Triple-A

Ritchie’s not only been the most impressive prospect in camp, but he’s also been doing it under potentially intimidating circumstances: paired with Chris Sale as either a piggyback or the veteran’s closer.

All Ritchie has done is avoid damage in those assignments, inducing 28 swings but allowing a grand total of one barrel. The youngster’s seen fantastic results on his changeup, getting six whiffs in ten swings, while also showing that while his four-seam fastball by itself isn’t the best from a movement perspective, he can find the necessary velocity when needed (max of 97.2) and can intermix it with his cutter and sinker. The fastball command up in the zone has been particularly impressive, and I didn’t realize his curveball played so well off of it, but the tunnel’s fantastic and he’s done a good job at spotting the curveball both down in the zone and away from lefties.

I led with Ritchie not because he’s the last of the trio left in big league camp, but he’s likely the most important of the three in 2026. He looks close to major league ready now and with more velocity growth like we’ve started to see this spring, can settle into a mid-rotation, #3 starter sooner rather than later.

Owen Murphy - RHP - Likely 2026 Assignment: Double-A

Murphy’s going to anchor the Clingstones rotation until the team pushes him to Gwinnett in the second half of the year, setting him up for a debut in 2027.

The first thing that stood out to me now that we have statcast data is his fastball shape. While his velocity base is still a bit underwhelming after Tommy John, having sat in the low-90s, he’s run it up to 94.6 and is getting an average of 19.1 inches of induced vertical break on it. He’s given up only one truly good bit of contact, with Tigers utilityman Trei Cruz tagging him for a 105.9 mph double in his first appearance. I’ve seen him go up the ladder with it and get whiffs, while he’s also spotted it down in the zone or to the edges for called strikes.

Murphy’s been a bit limited in what he’s throwing this spring, throwing equal parts of his slider and curveball in pretty defined handedness situations and occasionally pulling out a changeup. With the effectiveness of that fastball, though, he may be the rare pitcher that doesn’t need to lean on all three fastball variations, although I wouldn’t complain.

I still have Ritchie as the higher ceiling, which is not the most popular or common opinion when it comes to Murphy vs Ritchie, but the potential of the fastball to be elite if it can consistently sit in the mid-90s has Murphy on the verge of a breakout. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him challenging for a rotation spot in 2027, similar to how Ritchie is this spring.

Garrett Baumann - RHP - Likely 2026 Assignment: Double-A

The 1B to Murphy’s 1A, Baumann had a bit of a harder time missing bats this spring but showed that the tools are absolutely there. My offseason ‘to-do’ list for him was to be more consistently in the zone, attacking hitters and getting whiffs, and you can see that he was trying to rely less on chase this spring.

He wasn’t entirely successful, generating only five whiffs in 30 swings, but not for lack of trying - he had an in-zone rate of 57% with his mid-90s fastball and not only got Josh Bell to whiff on a perfectly executed slider, he also fooled Kody Clemens into striking out looking on a curveball that looked to be a ball but caught the corner of the plate.

It wasn’t all positive, as several Orioles hammered offerings from Baumann, but mostly to Braves defenders. I still want to see him sequence a bit more effectively, although it was heartening to see Baumann be willing to throw a splitter earlier than a two-strike count.

Other prospect notes

Didier Fuentes is one of the only pitchers on the 40-man roster that hasn’t gotten into a game yet. I’m told that his shoulder is healthy and that he’ll be making his spring debut soon; he was a bit delayed in his ramp-up for spring due to the shoulder rehab, so he hasn’t been ready for a live appearance in a game. The plan is still for Fuentes to be a starter and he’ll report to Triple-A Gwinnett to join that rotation when the season starts.

Middle infielder Cody Miller got some time at second base in Atlanta’s split-squad matchup on Sunday, playing on the road roster versus the Twins. He went 1-2, so that’s a crisp 1.000 OPS. I’m curious where he starts the season - a college guy usually doesn’t begin the season in Single-A, especially one taken in the 3rd round, but with Gil and Lodise both already likely going to High-A, it’s a crowded infield unless they leave Miller at second and/or move him around as a true utilityman.

Outfielder Eric Hartman is 1-2 this spring, and the one base hit was a speed job where he sent the ball up the first base line and then beat the defender to the bag. When you factor in his line drive power and extreme pull tendencies - 55.2% last year, which led the system among full-season guys - he could be a special player once he gets as comfortable with breaking balls as he is fastballs.