The Kids Might Be Alright: Atlanta’s Spring Breakout Position Player Options
A look at the most interesting Braves bats who could face the Yankees this spring
The Spring Breakout series is a rare win for Major League Baseball.
Going into its third season of existence, the Spring Breakout weekend series was created to give MLB teams a chance to showcase their prospects during spring training. It pairs up each MLB team with another over three Spring Training days, often with the parent teams playing before or after in a doubleheader.
It’s a huge success. Many of these games are televised, so even fans at home get what might be their first glimpses at their team’s future stars, while baseball nerds like myself are often able to finally get Statcast data on many of the prospects, as they’re playing in the parent team’s Spring Training park.1
With the Braves set to take on the New York Yankees this spring, let’s take an early look at who might take the diamond against the Baby Bronx Bombers on March 21st in Steinbrenner Field.
There are some obvious infield calls here
If we’re ranking these potential inclusions by how much fun it will be to watch them versus the Yankees, there’s no better place to start than shortstop John Gil.
Gil, 19, was a 2023 IFA out of the Dominican Republic who has speed in spades and some serious defensive chops. Spending almost all of last season in Single-A Augusta, Gil was a highlight factory, stealing 50 bases while providing slick glove work on a nightly basis. Baseball America, the industry’s gold standard for prospect evaluation, gave Gil’s speed a 70 on the traditional 20-80 scouting scale but said he still needs to refine his basestealing efficiency. Gil was thrown out 14 separate times on stolen base attempts last year, as well as had some baserunning errors that will resolve themselves with more experience.
Joining Gil is likely going to be one (or both) of the collegiate draftees from last season, Alex Lodise or Cody Miller. Lodise, from Florida State, played a little second base in both summer ball and High-A last year, while East Tennessee State University’s Cody Miller played more third base in Rome. If the team goes by pure prospect rankings, it’s likely these three with Gil at second, Lodise at short, and Miller at third.
Last year’s first round pick, Tate Southisene, has a grand total of 66 professional plate appearances and teams have so far been unwilling to send players that inexperienced to Spring Breakout.
Because it feels like getting three of the team’s four top position player prospects is too much to ask for, I’d imagine one of the Triple-A infielders, Luke Waddell or Cal Conley, gets an opportunity to make the roster, as well. Jim Jarvis is a possibility here, also, but he may well be in major league camp still as he works on the MLB roster’s final bench spot, although I expect him to end up in Gwinnett for Opening Day.
First base is likely going to be either David McCabe, who should be in Gwinnett this season, or a non-prospect to fill out the roster. Catcher has only one true prospect at the position, 2024 5th-rounder Nick Montgomery, and with early indications being that he may not be in major league spring training, he’s potentially a good fit for this roster.
How drastic is the outfield shake-up?
There are several names that can fit in this section, but the question is whether Atlanta wants to keep some continuity or promote someone new to this year’s roster.
Isaiah Drake appeared in Atlanta’s inaugural Spring Breakout matchup before being omitted from last year’s team, a side effect of his poor 2024. It’s likely he gets reinstated to this year’s squad. Drake was healthy last season and fixed a lot of his contact issues, hitting .272 on a season divided between Augusta and Rome while stealing 46 bags. Baseball America actually called him, not Gil, the organization’s fastest baserunner this spring.
Joining him would be some new faces, if it were up to me to build the roster. Logan Braunschweig, a 2025 9th-rounder out of UAB, hit nearly .300 over a month in Augusta after the draft. A corner outfielder by trade, I would pair him with 2024 11th-rounder Pat Clohisy, who notably improved his exit velocities last year and was absolutely scalding balls in the Arizona Fall League last year.
While there are two notable outfielders that would add electricity to the proceedings in 2025 IFA signing Diego Tornes and 2025 5th-rounder Conor Essenburg, neither has an official professional game stateside to their name. Tornes hit .279/.395/.402 in Dominican Summer League play last year, while Essenburg did not get into any official games after the draft but merely participated in unofficial “bridge league” contests at the complex. Again, it is the same situation as Southisene: it’s incredibly rare for teams to select players this young and inexperienced for their Spring Breakout rosters. Braunschweig, as a senior sign from UAB, has nearly 200 collegiate games under his belt and isn’t in the same position as an 18-year-old in professional baseball for the first time.
Dark horses that would be fun
If you’ve noticed that this seems to roughly follow a top prospect list, you’d be correct - one of the stated purposes of Spring Breakout is to showcase ‘the stars of tomorrow’, and 73 of last year’s MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects were selected for last year’s rosters across the league.
But that doesn’t mean that only top prospects will be added to their organization’s roster. Here are a few names, in no particular order, that are lesser-heralded in the eyes of The Prospect Apparatus™ but could still deliver electric performances if selected.
Outfielder Eric Hartman - The 2024 20th-rounder out of Canada is a pulled ball god, putting up an organization-high 55.2% pull rate last season. He’s also dabbled at second base a bit, as well, and getting him playing time at both positions in the same game would be fun.
Outfielder Owen Carey - While we’re talking about cold-weather prep outfielders, Carey was Atlanta’s 15th-rounder in 2024 out of New Hampshire. Similar to Drake Baldwin (and Tom Glavine before him), Carey’s also a former hockey star who has been able to translate some of those tools to the diamond. He’s got incredibly impressive exit velocities for a teenager without massive whiffs, an impressive combination for a young player that could eventually lead to a corner outfield spot.
First baseman Mason Guerra - The Oregon State product (2024R14) had some disappointing stats last year once he moved from Augusta to Rome, but a .253 BABIP and some bad luck didn’t help things. He hit 9 homers in 47 games in Augusta and has spent the winter working with Driveline Baseball , jumping onto their leaderboards with exit velocities of 120 mph off the bat. In an organization that is starved for power hitters, Guerra could be a diamond in the rough.
We’ll preview/power-rank the pitching options next week and then publish our annual roster prediction article in spring training.
CoolToday Park, the spring training home of the Atlanta Braves, is NOT a Statcast-enabled park and at this point, I’m beginning to take it a bit personally.