Today, two major media outlets — Baseball America and The Athletic — released their farm system rankings by team, and the Braves once again received high marks.
According to Baseball America, Atlanta has the fifth-best group of prospects in baseball, behind only the Tampa Bay Rays, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, and Detroit Tigers. The Braves moved back one spot from last year’s rankings, which is unsurprising given that Kyle Wright and Bryse Wilson — two of their top-ten prospects — graduated from prospect status. Baseball America only listed three Braves prospects among their top-100, but all three landed inside their top-32 — Cristian Pache (7th overall), Ian Anderson (8th overall), and Drew Waters (32nd overall).
Keith Law is in charge of coming up with the prospect rankings over at The Athletic, and his were a little different than Baseball America’s. The Braves were still rated highly, coming in at six, but the teams in front of them varied. The Rays once again held down the top spot, but behind them were the Indians, Blue Jays, Marlins, and Diamondbacks before the Braves.
Atlanta fans have plenty of reason to be excited. Their team is already championship-caliber, and they still have a borderline top-five farm system in baseball. However, their prospect-depth is beginning to thin. Both Pache and Anderson will graduate this season, and Drew Waters might as well. Thankfully, the Braves’ international restrictions will be behind them soon, but Anthopoulos has a lot of work to do to keep this farm system among the most well-respected in the game going forward.
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