JUST-IN: No Matter Who Runs the Show, Braves’ Draft Strategy Is a Total Disaster As Braves Must Stop Making the SAME Draft Mistake — It’s Driving Fans Crazy!

With the 2025 MLB Draft just days away, I’m reminded again why this event has always felt like a total snooze fest for me as an Atlanta Braves fan. I don’t follow college baseball closely enough to know any of the prospects, and even more frustrating is the Braves’ predictable, by-the-book draft strategy — one that has clearly backfired this season.

Much like my habit of picking a running back in fantasy football’s first round, the Braves almost always grab a pitcher with their first-round pick. Since Alex Anthopoulos took over the front office in late 2017, he’s been involved in seven drafts and made nine first-round picks — seven of which were pitchers.

That approach hasn’t exactly paid off. Carter Stewart didn’t sign and now plays in Japan, and Shea Langeliers, Braden Shewmake, Jared Shuster, and Ryan Cusick are all with other organizations (Langeliers did help the Braves land Matt Olson, to be fair). Of the current prospects still with Atlanta — Owen Murphy, JR Ritchie, Hurston Waldrep, and Cam Caminiti — only Caminiti looks like a real major-league contributor. This clearly shows a major issue with the Braves’ drafting.

In fact, the only first-round draftee making a real impact on the current Braves is Austin Riley. Yes, Atlanta excels at international signings and developing late-round picks, but if their first-round strategy is this flawed, it desperately needs a rethink. From John Schuerholz to Frank Wren, John Coppolella, and now Anthopoulos, this pattern seems stubbornly unchanging.

Austin Riley

It almost feels like the Braves are stuck on drafting pitchers because of legends like Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, a mindset that could cause trouble with a 2025 draft class heavy on hitters.

Maybe they believe pitchers have a better chance of reaching the majors than position players — I’m not sure — but the Braves have certainly doubled down on that idea. Every year or so, a promising pitcher breaks through, like Drake Baldwin this season or Spencer Schwellenbach last year.

While the Braves are strong at developing minor-league talent, they need to improve how they pick first-rounders. Not everyone will be a Chipper Jones, but it shouldn’t be this difficult. Perhaps this is “The Braves Way”: stubbornly sticking to their approach no matter what.

That said, if the Braves do pick a pitcher again this year, I’ll root for him — because he’s on the team that matters — even though history suggests I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up. There are plenty of talented hitters around the country waiting to be chosen, and many scouts say this draft is deeper in position players than pitchers. You’d think this would be the perfect time for Atlanta to break its mold, but with Anthopoulos at the helm, I’m not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep living in a world where prospects rarely deliver for me.