VIDEO: Meet Atlanta Braves Newest Pitcher Tyrell Jenkins

In a trade that caught most of us by surprise on Monday afternoon, is now setting in as realistic.  The Atlanta Braves shipped Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for pitchers Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins.

All the talk has been about JHey and Miller being the key pieces to this trade but could a different player potentially be a nice fit?

Jordan Walden…no, that’s not who I’m speaking about.

It’s actually Tyrell Jenkins.

Out of high school, Jenkins starred at baseball but he was also Baylor’s top recruiting quarterback, lettered in basketball and ran a 49-second quarter-mile in a relay race.

The now 22-year-old was selected by the Cardinals in the 1st round (50th selection) of the 2010 MLB June Amateur draft from Henderson High School in Texas.  In 2012 and 2013 he was ranked as the #94 prospect in baseball by Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus.  After a non-progressive 2013 season, he dropped out of the top 100 prospect list.  He ranked as the Cardinals sixth-best prospect in 2011 on the MLB.com rankings but dropped to 14th on that list in 2014.

Jenkins had shoulder surgery in August 2013 which led to him having to watch baseball for the first half of the 2014 season.

Jenkins was among a group of players eligible for the December Rule 5 Draft if the St. Louis Cardinals didn’t protect him on the team’s 40-man roster.  It sounds like they had four open roster spots and Jenkins could have been one of those.

Well just like that, he is no longer with the Cards and is a part of the Atlanta Braves organization.  With a slim prospect list, Jenkins has already jumped to #7 on the Braves prospect list on MLB.com.

The report from MLB.com….

"Jenkins has shown he still has what it takes to become a front-line starter. His fastball sits in the mid 90s, touching 96 mph with some nasty sink. He also flashes a plus curveball with some power and depth and has the makings of an effective changeup."

The 6’4″ 204 pound right handed pitcher will probably start off 2015 possibly with the Rome Braves.  He has yet to pitch above the A+ level with the Cardinals but I see the Braves moving him to Single-A (or maybe higher) to see what they have with this prospect.

I say maybe higher because Redbird Rants (our sister site at Fansided who covers the St. Louis Cardinals) just reported over the weekend that Jenkins progress in the Arizona Fall League may earn him a spot on a Major League roster.

Jenkins has been playing on Peoria Javelinas, the same team that the Atlanta Braves prospects are currently playing for, and has pitched in 24 1/3 innings over six starts and posted a team-best 2.22 ERA.

He has had 45 plate appearances in the minors but has yet to record a single hit.  That’s kind of unfortunate as the talk was how good of an athlete he was.

Having confidence in yourself and your abilities is key to a successful career and it sounds like Jenkins has this moving forward.

He told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com “I’m fully confident that next year, wherever I start, if I continue to do what I did here and do the things I’ve learned, that next year will be a very big year,” Jenkins said.  “As far as how they want to use me and what they want to do, I’m very excited to see what they’re going to do.  When the time comes, I’ll be ready to go.”

Take a look at the video to watch his fastball and nasty curve…