House That Hank Built
Fansided

Atlanta Braves Prospects: Braden Shewmake Scouting Report

By Jake Mastroianni

NORTH PORT, FL - FEBRUARY 23: Braden Shewmake #83 of the Atlanta Braves fields during the Spring Training game against the Detroit Tigers at CoolToday Park on February 23, 2020 in North Port, Florida. The Tigers defeated the Braves 5-1. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
NORTH PORT, FL - FEBRUARY 23: Braden Shewmake #83 of the Atlanta Braves fields during the Spring Training game against the Detroit Tigers at CoolToday Park on February 23, 2020 in North Port, Florida. The Tigers defeated the Braves 5-1. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 4
Next
A view of Truist Park Atlanta Braves. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
A view of Truist Park Atlanta Braves. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) /

We continue our series of scouting reports on the Atlanta Braves top prospects by looking at one of the top infield prospects in the system. 

The Atlanta Braves had one of the best infields in all of baseball — if not the best — in 2021 with Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, and Austin Riley.

Riley and Ozzie will be around for a while, and hopefully, they can keep Swanson and Freeman intact too as there isn’t much behind them at the minor league level.

Braden Shewmake is considered by many to be — by far — the best infield prospect in the Braves system right now. And definitely, the one that is the closest to making an impact at the big-league level.

There may be some others on the rise in a few years like Vaugh Grissom and Ambioris Tavarez, but the truth is, the Braves lack a lot of infield depth at the upper levels.

That puts even more pressure on Shewmake proving why he was worthy of a first-round pick in 2019 out of Texas A&M.

As someone who covers college baseball, and the SEC in particular, I can remember watching Shewmake as a freshman at Texas A&M when he slashed .328/.374/.529/.903 with 11 home runs and thinking he could be the top pick in a few years.

While the averages pretty much stayed the same, he never showed that much power in his final two college seasons.

The Braves were aggressive with him after the draft in 2019 starting him at Single-A where he slashed .318/.389/.473/.862 in 51 games. They then promoted him to Double-A, which has been a challenge for him.

In 97 games at Double-A, he’s slashing just .227/.273/.378/.652 with 12 home runs in 370 at-bats.

It was an up-and-down 2021 for Shewmake as he got off to a dreadful start (.099 in May), was hot in the middle (.357 in July), and then cooled off late (.184 in Sept.).

Home/Braves Prospects