Another season of Atlanta Braves minor league baseball looms on the horizon, and following the release of our top 30 prospects list last week, this week we are taking a deeper look at some of the prospects on the list and how the changes on the list came to be. One of the most important aspects when evaluating prospects is looking beyond their performances and into their pure tools, and which of those can help them project to not only perform at the minor league level but produce in the big leagues. So-called “carrying tools” — elite attributes that become the calling card for a player in their evaluations (and often career) — are highly coveted, especially with the desirable traits like fastball velocity, defense, and power. To start we’ll be looking at the best tools among Braves pitching prospects, a crop of players that is deep and has a number of guys ready to potentially contribute next season.
Best Fastball – Jhancarlos Lara / Raudy Reyes
With only four voters it’s inevitable there may be a couple of ties when things are this close, but it’s fair to say that both Jhancarlos Lara and Raudy Reyes have a strong case for the best fastball in the Braves system. The now 17 year old Reyes would have been a high profile signing for his ridiculous fastball alone, with his velocity topping out over 100 mph as an amateur. His pure velocity is the best in the system and he adds in above average carry and spin, making it a potentially devastating pitch. Concerns are normal about health for a player who throws that hard at Reyes’s age, but his large frame gives him some potential to be a starter in the future, a claim Jhancarlos Lara can no longer make given he has been moved to the bullpen full time. Still, the separator that makes this a close battle is that Reyes is still in the stage of his career where his command is at the bottom of the 20-80 scale and pushing the limits on that. He produced whiffs at a dominant rate last season but also walked 23% of batters, a number that even at his age is already concerning. Jhancarlos Lara’s velocity is only fractions of a tick behind Reyes, but he is much better at controlling his fastball even if he is still well-below-average with command. Lara averaged 98.3 mph on his fastball in Triple-A last season and at times was overwhelming with the pitch, though once he was moved back into a starting roll to finish the season he started getting hit harder. Still, he both produces high swing-and-miss rates and very poor contact quality and his fastball is ready to play at the major league level. Reyes has a higher ceiling for his fastball by a margin, though Lara’s is a safer bet to contribute to success in Atlanta.
Best Changeup – Cam Caminiti
From first round pick to top prospect in the system, Cam Caminiti is living up to the hype in a big way early in his career. He features a well-rounded arsenal, but his changeup in particular was one of the keys to him being a top draft pick and it has been a strong offering for him early in his minor league career. Caminiti hasn’t been relying on the changeup often at the lower levels with the Braves focusing on him honing his fastball command switching over to a slider as his breaking ball of choice, but when it was deployed this season it was a weapon that wreaked havoc in Single-A and helped him to put up a dominant campaign despite some sporadic health issues. Caminiti’s changeup features all the hallmarks of a pitch that should succeed as he moves up the ladder, with good fading life, a release consistent with his fastball, and a solid separation in velocity. Many believe his athleticism will allow him to improve on his command, which was spotty at times in 2025 and gave him some issues landing his changeup consistently in the strike zone. With more repetition and a strong position in his arsenal his changeup is a pitch that will produce swing-and-miss at maturity and help round out an exciting pitch mix.
FORT WORTH, TX – JULY 14: Cam Caminiti talks to media after being drafted by the Atlanta Braves with the 24th pick of the first round during the 2024 MLB Draft presented by Nike at Cowtown Coliseum on Sunday, July 14, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Gene Wang/Getty Images) Getty Images
Best Slider – Jhancarlos Lara
It’s not common for a player with a 100 mph fastball to utilize anything else as his primary pitch, but Lara’s slider is so good that he used it more than his fastball in 2025 and it was outlandishly dominant. At the lower levels of the system Lara’s slider relied on being thrown hard and feeding off of the fastball, but over the past couple of seasons he has steadily refined the shape and improved the movement to where it now stands alone as a pitch that can have consistent success. He throws it in the upper 80’s and gives it a sharp two-plane tilt, and for most of 2025 he was able to throw it for strikes more often than his fastball. Thus, he settled in to utilizing his slider more than 50% of the time, and even with that high usage Triple-A hitters could not do anything with it. Lara threw 554 sliders in Gwinnett last season, and even with that sample size produced a staggering 51.4% whiff rate. His command is still not where it needs to be, yet his slider was so effective that even when he made mistakes hitters had a hard time taking advantage of it. Lara allowed only two barrels on the pitch. It’s rare to see a pitcher with two 70 grade offerings, but Lara’s slider is the best pitch in the entire system and gives him elite reliever potential.
Best Curveball – Briggs McKenzie
Despite not playing a professional game yet, McKenzie already ranks as the system’s best curveball with the potential for the pitch to be a plus offering. There is a bit of a caveat with this rating, as the Braves tend to have their pitchers throw sliders, and those that do throw curveballs (like Caminiti as an amateur) typically get pushed towards sliders. This could be the result for McKenzie as a professional, but if there is one thing McKenzie’s curveball shows it’s that he is able to spin a breaking ball. Yet even in a system with more pitchers offering curveballs, McKenzie’s would stand out. He spins the pitch as high as 3000 rpm, and his curveball has the potential to be even better if he adds power to his arsenal. Right now it sits in the upper 70’s and is a power breaker for him at just 10-15 mph below his fastball. The Braves will work to add more power and if he can add a few ticks without losing his ability to spin the pitch he could avoid the pitfalls of a player like Adam Maier and have a pitch that gets on hitters too quickly for them to adjust to the spin. Because of his high release point his curve doesn’t have a hump in it, riding straight down out of his hand with big depth and the ability to be buried below the strike zone. It has swing-and-miss potential and will be a key part of his arsenal, though it is also a point of emphasis for the beginning of the next season to see how much the Braves modify the pitch or if they switch him over to a slider.
Best Cutter – Blake Burkhalter
Blake Burkhalter is likely to see big league action in 2026, and it all revolves around his ability to throw his cutter and dominate hitters. Burkhalter utilizes his fastball and cutter combination more than 2/3 of the time, a number which may grow as he moves into the bullpen, and his ability to locate the cutter on the glove side half of the plate has made it a dangerous offering. His whiffs dropped off at the end of 2026 and he seemed to have some fatigue which cut into his velocity and command down the stretch, but at his peak he was able to miss bats with the cutter and produce poor contact quality. Triple-A hitters struggled to make solid contact with his cutter, and it was his most effective pitch through that more mediocre stretch of play for him. At his best, especially in short bursts, his cutter can sit in the low 90’s, though in his starting role it was more in the high 80’s. It has a sharp glove side movement that is just enough to run it off of a hitter’s barrel, and is feel for locating the pitch just off the plate when he needs to is superb. With a future in the bullpen the pitch will play up and projects as a 65 grade offering and the best pitch in his arsenal.
CHATTANOOGA, TN – MAY 31: Blake Burkhalter #40 of the Columbus Clingstones pitching during the game between the Columbus Clingstones and the Chattanooga Lookouts at AT&T Field on Saturday, May 31, 2025 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Photo by William McCutcheon/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images)
Best Control – Lucas Braun
2025 was a setback for Lucas Braun, who never quite reached the heights of his 2024 campaign as his slider backed up and he didn’t produce as many whiffs as he had. He worked to add pitches to his arsenal, and one thing held true for him — he can throw anything for a strike. Braun is the pitcher in the system who is most able to work ahead in counts and keep hitters on their back foot, though at times in 2025 he wasn’t able to hit the finer edges with his fastball. Still, he makes a concerted effort to hit the strike zone and relies on a deep arsenal and the ability to move his pitches around to get outs. This was a bit of a limitation for him as he got to Triple-A and didn’t really have a pitch to get consistent swing-and-miss, and he is likely to see himself limited to a back end starting role or to being a guy who moves up and down between Triple-A and the major leagues. However, if he can get a bit finer with his fastball like he was in 2024 and get better at keeping his slider off of the edges he could slightly improve his projections and lock down a more solid role at the major league level.
MONTGOMERY, AL – JULY 03: Lucas Braun #12 of the Columbus Clingstones pitches during the game between the Columbus Clingstones and the Montgomery Biscuits at Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium on Thursday, July 3, 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by Natalie Buchanan/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images)
Best Command – Didier Fuentes / Ian Mejia
We had another grading tie in command, and two pitchers who are in vastly different places in their careers. The Braves are doing everything they can to find a way to deploy Ian Mejia’s pitch mix, as he features an above-average slider and the ability to spot his pitches at will. These two traits have found him success at Double-A, but his poor fastball velocity has thus far just been too much to overcome. Mejia can hit the edges of the strike zone with his fastball seemingly at will, but even when he does he just doesn’t have the power or movement to miss bats. The Braves messed around with moving him to a sinker which had some positive results in the second half of 2025, and though he doesn’t have the fastball to carve out a long-term starting role in Atlanta, his command and slider could give him a long-relief/spot-start future if he can find a way to miss barrels. Didier Fuentes is slipping in the eyes of evaluators after a rough first dip into the major leagues, but at 20 years old still has all of the potential in the world. His fastball not only has plus velocity and movement but he has shown the potential to spot it at the top of the zone consistently thanks to his athleticism and his ability to repeat his delivery. His slider was a bit more hit-or-miss in the second half of the season in 2025, though at his best he can sling it across the zone and put it off of the plate to get hitters to miss. He should only get better with his command as he gets more seasoning, and with a decent ending to last season he has momentum moving into his age-21 season and plenty of time to carve out a long-term future even if he is still stuck with a two-pitch mix.
Photo by Olivia Potts/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images