Braves: Greyson Jenista wins Batter of the Week

The Braves place among MiLB.com’s Player of the Week column continues this season as Mississippi Braves slugger Greyson Jenista won Batter of the Week for last week’s performance.

POTW: @greysonjenista is your Double-A South Player of the Week after belting four homers in three games, including a career night on Thursday with three homers, and five RBI!

Details > https://t.co/T8HAZcgSGg pic.twitter.com/PlhgnqBnDO

— Mississippi Braves (@mbraves) September 6, 2021

 

Jenista, 24-years-old, only played in three games last week, though he made quite the impression. The former second-round pick finished the week 5 for 10 with four home runs and six RBI, with three of those long balls coming in one game as part of a five-RBI performance at the plate last Thursday.

Greyson Jenista is having a night for Mississippi. He just hit his THIRD home run of the game. The MBraves lead 16-8 and have hit seven home runs pic.twitter.com/kvXwp1ASO2

— Atlanta Braves Farm System Updates (@BravesMILB) September 3, 2021

The big week was definitely needed for Jenista. This season, the slugger has struggled mightily with strikeouts, seeing his overall K rate in 2021 rise by almost 10% relative to 2019. To begin the current campaign, I had Jenista ranked 22^nd on my 2021 Braves Top 30 Prospect List, but due to a first-half that featured a .178 AVG in the months of May and June combined, I was forced to drop him down to no. 25 in the list’s midseason update. With next season being his age-26 campaign, the 6-4, 210-pound first baseman/DH doesn’t have much longer to correct his whiff issues.

Despite all of the swing and miss, though, Jenista wields more power than probably any other Braves prospect in the system right now (save for perhaps teammate Drew Lugbauer). The kid is now up to 17 homers so far this season with the M-Braves – more dingers than he managed to hit in the previous two years combined. Because of that power, Jenista still manages to sport an above average 119 wRC+ this year, despite carrying a middling .214 AVG.

Hopefully, Jenista can cut back on some of the whiffs soon and eventually earn a deserved promotion to Triple-A Gwinnett. The Braves could always use a dangerous lefty-power bat… and Jenista could one day be just that. Regardless, congrats to another trending prospect in the Atlanta system.