The Braves have selected the contract of young lefty Luiz Gohara and scheduled him for his MLB debut tonight, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported. Atlanta will push back Julio Teheran, who had been scheduled to start.
Gohara, who only recently turned 21, came to the Atlanta organization in an offseason swap that also netted the Braves interesting relief prospect Thomas Burrows. The Mariners originally signed Gohara out of his native Brazil in time for him to join the organization briefly in 2013; due to a rules quirk, he was not eligible for the Rule 5 draft last year but would have been this coming winter.
With the Braves set to add Gohara to the 40-man roster anyway, then, the club decided to give him a taste of the majors before ending his whirlwind campaign. He has already thrown far more innings (123 2/3) than ever before, spread across three levels of the minors.
Gohara opened the season at High-A, marking his first experience there. But it wasn’t long before he moved up to Double-A, where he threw well enough to merit another bump to the highest level of the minors. All told, Gohara carries a 2.62 ERA with 10.7 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 on the year.
As he has swiftly ascended the ladder, Gohara has climbed prospect ranking charts. ESPN.com’s Keith Law (#39), Baseball America (#77), and MLB.com (#91) have all moved him into their rankings of the game’s top prospects. While conditioning and durability remain long-term concerns for the talented southpaw, he has certainly shown this year that he is capable of converting his big-time raw stuff into productivity over the course of a full season.
It’s not yet known whether Gohara will have a shot at earning a rotation spot out of camp next year, but he could force the club’s hand with a big showing to end the season. For now, Atlanta will be content watching another interesting young arm rise to the majors. The team has already called up Sean Newcomb, Max Fried, and Lucas Sims for their first MLB action this year.
I’ll say Burrows is an interesting prospect: (Rome-A): 2.16 ERA with 92:25 (K:BB) ratio in 66.2 IP.
Best of luck to the Brazilian CC
Got to be excited about this if you are a braves fan. Should be fun to watch…
It is exciting, but at the same time, the conditioning and by extension injury concerns are very real
Hes turned a corner and its been 2 consecutive promising years in that regard. Theres always concerns about reverting back but hes on the right track
I hope so. There are some people that believe he has the highest upside of all the braves pitching prospects
How Copp was able to get this high upside arm for a speedster and injury prone reliever ill never know. I have really high hopes for this kid. Ill be tuned in tnite
Good scouting on the Braves part, Mariners aggressively trying to go for it.
I’m really confused as to what the Braves’ rotation is these days.
dickey, teheran, newcomb, sims, fried, gohara, and folty….going with the common 7 man rotation
They’ve moved sims to the pen for now.
lol same
I was really sad to see Dipoto trade this kid he was one of the guys I thought would be a long term answer to go along with Paxton. Wish him all the luck and success.
Can Luiz Gohara hit?
What was the last year the Braves used a first round pick on a position player? Was that Jason Heyward?
I hate N.L. Least baseball.
Fun fact: the best hitter in their team wasnt even a 1st round pick
Casey, relax. lol our hitting has been fine and we actually have quite a bit of talented hitting in our system. Just doesn’t seem like it to the avg fan because they don’t actually take the time to go look. COUGH COUGH Casey. lol Remember, we have signed quite a few higher end international hitting prospects, and we have drafted other hitters somewhat high in the last few drafts. I wouldn’t worry to much about drafting a hitter with the first round pick.
21 year old fireballer who strikes out a ton? Yeah this is going to go down as one of the worst trades in Mariner history. Until Jerry makes another trade.
I don’t know it will take a lot to beat the Adam Jones trade. This might be close though.
It would take a lot to surpass the Adam Jones deal, but I’ll be happy if the Braves have that sort of steal.
They also traded dalton Kelly and Zack littell away. Both bad ideas.