The Braves have signed the first six players they selected in the 2023 draft, which took place earlier this week. Right-handers Hurston Waldrep, Drue Hackenberg, Cade Kuehler and Garrett Baumann have put pen to paper, as has shortstop Sabin Ceballos and outfielder Isaiah Drake. Details from Twitter courtesy of Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline and Carlos Collazo of Baseball America. Additionally, the club inked seventh-rounder Justin Long, per Collazo.
Waldrep, 21, was selected 24th overall out of the University of Florida. He will receive a signing bonus of $2,997,500, slightly under that pick’s slot value of $3,270,500. He made 19 starts for the Gators this year, tossing 101 2/3 innings with a 4.16 ERA. He struck out 34.7% of the batters he faced while walking 12.7%.
He was ranked the #14 player in the draft by both ESPN and Keith Law of The Athletic, #18 by Baseball America, #19 by MLB.com, with FanGraphs having him the highest at #6. The reports on him all reflect the stat line, in that they point to his excellent strikeout stuff but lack of command. His splitter is considered his best put-away pitch, often thrown below the zone for either a whiff or a ball.
Hackenberg, 21, was the club’s second-round pick, taken out of Virginia Tech. He’ll get a $2MM bonus, significantly above his $1,369,300 slot value. The righty made 15 starts for Virginia Tech this year, posting a 5.80 ERA in 85 1/3 innings, striking out 24.8% of hitters while walking just 6.5%.
Kuehler, 21, was selected 70th overall, using the compensatory draft pick that Atlanta received when Dansby Swanson rejected a qualifying offer and signed with the Cubs. He gets a $1.045MM bonus, just under the $1.0475MM slot. He made 13 starts for Campbell University this year with a 2.71 ERA, 29.3% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate.
Ceballos, 20, was taken in the third round out of the University of Oregon. He receives a signing bonus of $597.5K compared to a slot of $714.1K. He hit .333/.426/.643 in his 256 plate appearances this year. Baumann, 18, was selected in the fourth round out of a Florida high school. He’ll get $747.5K for his bonus, a bit above the $521.8K slot. Drake, 17, was selected in the fifth round out of North Atlanta High School. He’ll get the same $747.5K bonus as Baumann, but against a less slot of $367.5K.
Long, 21, was taken in the seventh round out of Rice University. He gets a bonus of $172.5K, beneath his $229.4K slot value. He tossed 45 2/3 innings this year with a 4.93 ERA, 18.9% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate.
How did we sign Waldrep under slot AA sorcerer confirmed?
He’s a college player who didn’t have any other options
He wasn’t a senior and had the option to go back
LAA signed their first Rd pick
AA: hold my beer, young buck
What’s the over/under for how many of these guys will be in the majors in 2025, and ROY candidates?
7 (including the AL MVP Langford and NL MVP Crews, along with reliever of the Year Skenes)
Judging from the info in the article, none
Opps… I thought you were talking about MLB instead of the Braves
0? If anyone of them are up by 2025, then all 29 other teams have dropped the ball in the draft.
Harris was up in 2 years (not including 2020), and Strider was up even faster. Bryce Elder also.
Don’t forget Smith-Shawver. Drafted in 2021 and already put up some decent work in MLB.
Cade Kuehler will be a candidate for ROY in 2025 closing games for the Braves.
Don’t forget about ’22 2nd Rd comp pick (Blake Burkhalter), former Auburn closer who is missing this year (TJ).
It would be nice of it ended with
“All told the braves have exceeded/came under slot values by spending X amount against x values of said slots”. I like knowing cuz tou start getting ideas of might not sign
MLB.com
MLS.com?
Surprised they didn’t sign them all to team friendly long term major league contracts lol
I hate being in the same division as the Braves.
You guys were just in the world series. Can’t be that bad.
exactly lol
BREAKING: The Braves have also announced that they’ve subsequently signed Waldrep to a 10 year/$100MM contract, to proactively buy out his first few years of free agency like they’ve done with their entire roster.
Okay. I don’t know if you are being critical or not but that mayed me LOL!
Not critical, but 1 million percent sarcastic!
I’m an Orioles fan, but I like the Braves style. I wish Elias and co. would start doing the same and follow the Braves model with some of our young talent, especially Adley and Gunnar.
I’m really surprised that Hackenberg required the Braves to go that much over the slot. I thought they were reaching and he would sign for the recommended or slightly below. The Braves must know something others don’t about him
That was my reaction too but he was a sophomore who could have returned to school so they had to overpay. Reports are playing on turf may have inflated his stats some bc his peripherals look good. I was higher on Waldrep and Kuehler initially but this has me intrigued by all 3.
Underlying metrics really strong on Hackenberg, and the Braves like the shape of his slider and think it can be a swing-and-miss pitch with some fine-tuning. Performance numbers heavily tanked by bad VPI middle infield defense too.
Plus as a draft-eligible college sophomore, Hackenberg had more leverage than most other college piayers.
The rich just got richer. Not even the 13 prospects taken away from the Braves system for cheating even put a dent in that organization.
Whatever it is that organization does I wish we could do too.
Time to reload boys! Keep chopping!
And keep chomping!
Braves are so obsessed with drafting pitchers early. Can’t say I blame them with the success. 2019 is the only year they didn’t go pitcher high recently. Guess you can do it when your entire core is locked up for the decade
Pitchers are the most valuable position in every way: Contracts, trade pieces and roster construction. It’s smart to overload on them with the aforementioned position players locked up.
Only 5 players remain unsigned of the 21 draft picks left. A pretty impressive day overall.
Look at the last 10 years. The braves draft the boring and notoriously droll, pitchers, pitchers, and more pitchers. (I know there are many players they also use picks on but for the most part it is a myriad of pitchers.) It might not be the grand showy thing to do, but the Braves put that to good use by using them as either trade bait for already established players or other farm shortages. Literally the Braves are a brothel for pitchers.
Whorehouse or storehouse?