The Braves snagged infielders with their top three picks in the 2025 draft. One of their more overlooked draftees will be among their most interesting.

Atlanta drafted East Tennessee State shortstop Cody Miller in the third round, just after taking high school shortstop Tate Southisene and Florida State shortstop Alex Lodise earlier in the night. They viewed Miller as a project worth exploring.

Miller is a tremendous athlete who has exhibited budding power potential, even if it occurred at a smaller program. He hit four home runs in his first two seasons but smacked 18 in 2025.

Miller is played around the infield, and the Braves believe he could handle himself in the outfield if needed. Miller is a project, but his speed and perceived room to develop more pop makes him a reasonable one. He has a lot of strength in his 5-foot-11, 189-pound build.

“You have the tools to play short, you’ll be able to fit anywhere on the diamond, especially the infield,” Braves scouting director Ronit Shah said. “The speed that someone like Cody Miller has, he’s going to be able to play in the outfield, also, if he ever needs to do that.”

Miller hit well at two levels of the Braves’ system in his debut, batting .327/.381/.449 with two home runs and 10 stolen bases in 26 games for Low-A Augusta and High-A Rome.  

While the Braves say it wasn’t intentional, the team injected needed position-player talent into its system with the latest draft. Miller won’t be fast-tracked to the same extent as Lodise, but his traits make him a fascinating player to follow.

SHORT NOTES

— Catcher Drake Baldwin won 2025 National League Rookie of the Year, bestowing them with a Prospect Promotion Initiative draft pick after the first round in the 2026 draft. The Braves’ own first-round pick will be settled via lottery, with a 4.54% chance of it becoming No. 1. It will be interesting to see if the organization gaining an extra pick will motivate it to pursue a free agent who received a qualifying offer.

— The Braves love 2025 fourth-rounder Briggs McKenzie, a North Carolina prep lefthander they swayed from an LSU commitment to join their system. The question with him will be his fastball velocity—it hovered in the high 80s and low 90s last season— but his curveball is immediately one of the most exciting pitches among the organization’s lower-level arms.