Speedster Prospect Pat Clohisy Flashing Improved Batted Ball Data in Arizona

The outfield prospect flashed absurd speed and better batted ball data in the desert this fall

(Excited to run a freelance piece from my friend Michael McDermott, who runs the excellent D-backs Under Review. As an Arizona resident, he’s been a constant presence at Arizona Fall League games and attended the Fall Stars game on Sunday night to talk to some Braves players for us.)

MESA – Outfielder Pat Clohisy is one of three Atlanta Braves prospects who participated in the Fall Stars Game at Sloan Park. Clohisy won the Fall Stars Final Vote over the Cubs’ Cole Mathis and the Nationals’ Sam Petersen.

“It’s an honor to be in this game,” said Clohisy. “It’s a good feeling, and I’m very happy and fortunate. I got a lot of votes. I thank all the voters; it’s great to be here.”

Adding to the satisfaction for Clohisy is being able to participate in the Fall Stars Game with two of his Braves teammates. Nacho Alvarez Jr. and Luke Sinnard were also named to the roster.

“It’s great. Getting to know those guys. I played with Luke this year. I haven’t played with Nacho as much, so getting to know him, learn from him, learn from Luke, learn from all the players.”

Clohisy played a key role in the National League’s ninth-inning comeback bid. With two runners on, he lifted a line drive to left to cut the deficit to two runs. Following a wild pitch, he scored on a Miguel Ugueto comebacker that took a crazy bounce off the pitching rubber and into the outfield to tie the game. However, the American League still prevailed, as his Glendale teammate, Sam Antonacci, provided a walk-off sacrifice fly to seal a 5-4 win.

With a 45% ground ball rate between High-A Rome and Double-A Columbus, the Braves sent Clohisy out to work on lifting the ball more in Arizona. They also wanted him to work on getting better jumps on the bases and become a more potent basestealing threat.

“It’s been great to get out here. I was very fortunate to be sent out here. It’s been good to meet a bunch of new guys, keep working on some things I’ve been working on, and develop as a baseball player.”

Clohisy feels like he’s improved in those two key areas. It’s not necessarily reflected in his bottom-line numbers, as he’s slashing .276/.389/.355 in the Fall League.

“I think my cage work has gotten a lot better, and I do think I’m consistently getting the ball in the air.”

For much of the fall league, Clohisy struggled with hitting the top of the baseball. That’s gotten better of late, as only 10 of his last 23 batted balls are on the ground. At the same time, we’re seeing better exit velocity numbers out of the Braves’ outfield prospect. While his hard-hit rate of 30.2% is the same compared to his 30% mark in the regular season, his 90th percentile exit velocity has jumped from 102.2 MPH to 104.9 MPH.

The 90th percentile exit velocity metric is good for estimating the type of power a hitter is capable of producing. The major league average is 103.7 MPH, so Clohisy’s mark of 104.9 MPH is an encouraging sign. The sample size is small, with only 63 batted ball events in the Arizona Fall League so far, but it’s something to monitor moving forward.

The key for Clohisy to reach the big leagues will be the continued development of his bat. He’ll need to make pitchers pay for mistakes in the heart of the zone in the form of extra-base hits. That will force pitchers to be more careful when pitching to him, creating more opportunities for him to reach base and turn his speed into a weapon.

On the basepaths, Clohisy has been excellent. He enters the final week of the fall league 21-for-23 on stolen base attempts. He’s one good week from challenging the AFL’s stolen base record of 29, set by former Braves prospect Caleb Durbin last year. While he notes that that’s a high number for the number of games left (four-plus), he’s going to keep being aggressive and see where they fall. At the minimum, he has a good shot at breaking Rick Holifield’s 24 for second place.

With how tight the margin is for major league games, having a player who can create scoring opportunities on the bases is a huge addition to the offense. He stole 79 bases in 96 attempts (82.3%) in the minors, with a slightly better steal rate in Columbus (82.6%). With the Braves looking to add more offense to their roster, especially at the bottom of their lineup, that type of speed can be a huge asset for him.

“I think speed’s a huge part of the game. You saw in the World Series, a lot of guys get in there to pinch run. It’s a valuable thing if you can steal extra runs, steal an extra base, get in scoring position. I think any team can use that.”

Clohisy is no stranger to the ABS challenge system that’s coming to Major League Baseball in 2026. He played under the challenge system with Single-A Augusta in his pro debut before doing so again in the Arizona Fall League. There have been some notable close calls, including at least four instances of a ball missing the strike zone by less than 0.1”.

“I really love the balls and strikes. It keeps players accountable, pitchers accountable, umpires accountable. I’m a fan for the strike zone challenge.”

While Clohisy is a fan of the balls and strikes challenge system, he’s not as sure regarding the check swing challenge system. They rolled out that feature in the Arizona Fall League last year, then the Florida State League in the 2025 minor league season. Clohisy thinks it’s a great idea, but doesn’t hold much of an opinion on its implementation.

“Sometimes when you see a guy check swing and you’re like, oh, he went, and then you see it on the review and it’s not even close. So I don’t know, I don’t have a strong opinion on that one.”

The current system is very generous for hitters, as the barrel of the bat has to be 45° ahead of the knob. As it currently is, the bat has to be parallel with the opposite base line to be considered a swing. That’s something that MLB should attempt to tighten up before implementing higher up in the minors, and eventually the majors.