Braves Projected to Add to a Position of Major League Strength in This Summer's Draft

The Atlanta Braves have a farm system built on pitching. 

If you think about it, that makes sense. The Braves have every defensive position on the diamond locked up long-term, with the first starter to hit free agency slated to be shortstop Orlando Arcia after the 2026 season, assuming his club option for 2025 is picked up. 

But there’s still a need to develop impact position players in the minor leagues, to both supplement the depth of the major league roster and to give you options for your bench, as injury replacements, and as options at designated hitter. 

Developing impact hitting is something that MLB Pipeline thinks Atlanta will try to do this upcoming MLB Draft, with their latest mock draft having the Braves select catcher Caleb Lomavita out of Cal with the #24 pick. 

Here’s what analyst Jonathan Mayo said about the choice of Lomavita: 

“Lomavita could very well go higher than this. He’s an athletic backstop with plus arm strength and some pop at the plate who has an OPS of 1.027 this spring, but teams have expressed concern over his overly aggressive approach at the plate and 38-percent chase rate.”

It’s an interesting choice for Atlanta, for a few reasons. 

The obvious complaint that most will have is that, well, Atlanta already has a long-term catcher in Sean Murphy. But as his recent injury absence shows, having a second quality catcher is always a requirement - Travis d’Arnaud is a free agent after this season, although his 2025 club option could keep him with the organization through his age 37 season. 

Really, position doesn’t matter in the first round - you take the best player available. That argument applies here. 

But also, Atlanta’s been good at developing catchers, and having additional catching prospects in your organization is valuable. Two of the biggest trades the Braves have made in recent years, both the Sean Murphy and the Matt Olson acquisitions, were made with a catcher as the headliner of the packages. Shea Langeliers (Oakland in the Matt Olson deal) and William Contreras (Milwaukee in the Sean Murphy deal) are both starters in Major League Baseball right now, and other catchers have been moved in deals like with the Adam Duvall-for-Alex-Jackson acquisition of 2021. 

Right now, Atlanta has Chadwick Tromp serving as the backup in Atlanta during Murphy’s injury absence and MLB Pipeline’s #11 prospect in Drake Baldwin in AA, with the rest of the organization’s depth coming from veterans (Sandy Leon) and non-rated developmental projects (Tyler Tolve, Sebastián Rivero, Adam Zebrowski, etc). 

Adding a high-level catching prospect would be a smart move for Atlanta, and if you can get a top talent later on the board than where he really should be taken - Lomavita is MLB Pipeline’s #14 draft prospect in this class and someone who could very well be the first catcher off the board - you need to make that pick.