Atlanta Braves: A couple of former top prospects cut recently

There have been a lot of cuts recently in Major League Baseball and we saw a couple of former top Atlanta Braves prospects get the axe.

It’s difficult times for Major League Baseball teams like the Atlanta Braves having to make million-dollar decisions not knowing what the future of the game looks like.

While it’s easy to place the blame on the millionaire owners who are choosing to cut all these Minor League players, I’m not about to pass judgement on them like I know or can even fathom the difficult decisions they and a lot of other businesses are having to make during this time.

This is soapbox moment, but I’m getting really tired of MLB writers bashing owners for the difficult decisions they have to make. Maybe they’re right in those judgments, but I just don’t feel like it’s fair to label someone a bad person for making a difficult decision under very difficult circumstances.

And I have to believe they wouldn’t make these decisions unless they absolutely felt like they had to.

Another thing, a lot of these Minor League players that are getting cut would likely have been cut regardless.

MLB was ready to get rid of a bunch of MiLB teams anyway that would have led to a lot of players losing their jobs.

But anyways, soap box ended.

As you can see from that tweet by JJ Cooper, the number of players released by the Braves is not much different from any other season.

The only big difference is that some these players would have been MiLB free agents after the season and instead of cutting them at that point, teams are cutting them now because there likely won’t be a Minor League season.

From the list above, the only name that most of you will likely recognize is former first-round pick, Braxton Davidson.

Technically, Davidson was a comp-A pick, but it was the Braves’ first overall pick in that 2014 draft when they took him with the 32nd pick.

To be honest, I hated the pick when the Braves made it. Michael Kopech and Jack Flaherty where the two picks following Davidson, so it looks even worse now.

After being drafted, Davidson was ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the Braves system. By 2015 he had dropped to 13, and then 21st in 2016, and then he dropped out of the top 30 on MLB altogether following the 2017 season.

Obviously, the Braves farm system became stacked during those years, but Davidson just never did develop into the hitter the Braves expected.

In parts of five Minor League seasons he hit a combined .213 with 47 gome runs in 1,754 at-bats. He did have a solid OBP of .341, but he struck out entirely too much including 213 times in 2018.

He showed some promise in the Arizona Fall League in 2018 hitting 6 home runs in 66 at-bats, including a walk-off home run in the championship game. But while rounding the bases he hurt his foot and missed the entire 2019 season.

Even though I wasn’t happy with the pick, I hate we never got to see Davidson reach his full potential.

Another sad story is that of Luiz Gohara.

Last July the Braves designated the pitcher — who was once a top-six prospect in the Braves’ system — for assignment and he landed with the Angels.

Unfortunately, he just hasn’t been able to get his health under control and he hasn’t picked in a game since 2018.

The Angles recently cut him and he’s now a free agent again at the age of 23.

Gohara has had a rough go of things on and off the field in recent years. There aren’t many players in the game I’m rooting for more than Gohara.

I wish him all the best and hope he finally gets healthy and is able to compete at a Major League level again.