Here is a look at four prospects that you need to keep an eye on for the 2024 season.

The Atlanta Braves farm system witnessed one of the biggest prospect breakouts in the game last season. The clubs 2021 7th round pick, AJ Smith-Shawver, closed the 2022 season as the organizations 17th biggest prospect on MLBPipeline. But a 2.76 ERA across three minor league levels saw him become a top 100 prospect a year later. Breakouts of that caliber are not overly common, although there is a predictive element to them. Let’s look at four of the Braves candidates who can breakouts in 2024.

Mario Baez – SS

2023 stats – .311/.393/.422, 3 home runs, 20 walks, 25 strikeouts

The biggest knock on Baez as a prospect is his lack of power. That shortcoming can be attributed to the fact that the middle infielder measures in at just 5 foot 9 and weighs 175 pounds. However, that lack of in-game power did not prevent him from making a noticeable impact in his first professional season. In addition to his impressive triple slash line Baez also swiped 24 bags in just 47 games, which translates to .51 stolen bases per game, a 162 game pace of 82. I don’t think the breakout for Baez is going to come through an uptick in power, rather an impressive batting average and eye popping steal numbers for the 17 year old.

Ambrioris Tavarez – SS

2023 stats – .216/.319/.337, 7 home runs, 44 walks, 196 strikeouts

Yes, I know, on the surface, Tavarez does not look anything like a breakout candidate with such an ugly batting average and strike out rate. However, as the season progressed, it looked like Tavarez started to figure some things out. From August 6th to September 10th, the final game of the season, Tavarez hit .290, a massive step up from his full season average of .216. He wasn’t impacting the ball well as only 6 of his 31 hits were extra base hits (no homers), but a jump of this nature is impossible to ignore. If Tavarez can even slightly limit the strikeouts and carry his end of season momentum into 2024, he has a chase to rise up the clubs prospect rankings.

Drake Baldwin – C

2023 stats – .270/.384/.460, 16 home runs, 67 walks, 98 strikeouts

After a relatively average first season, Baldwin saw a large uptick in his sophomore season numbers. After accumulating just 5 extra base hits with a .460 slugging percentage across 24 games in 2022. In 2023 he racked up 43 extra base hits in 109 games. Baldwin also impressively closed last season in AAA despite starting the season at High-A and playing in just 14 AA games. Since he closed out the year at the Triple-A level, there is an extremely strong chance that the 2022 draftee will see major league action at some point in 2024, especially if he can continue to build on his strong 2023 season.

Drue Hackenberg – SP

2023 stats – 1.42 ERA, 6 ⅓ innings pitched, 6 walks, 13 strikeouts, 1.42 WHIP

If I had to place a bet on who would become the team’s 2024 AJ Smith-Shawver, it would be Hackenberg. There are not any particular numbers that make me think this as after all he pitched just 6 ⅓ innings last season. However, the club showed a great deal of trust in him as they aggressively promoted the 21 year old to Double-A for his final start of the season. They were similarly aggressive with AJSS last season who pitched across 4 different levels in 2023, including the MLB. Because of the fact Hackenberg closed the season in Double-A, there is a chance he could be a couple of injuries away from pitching in the bigs in 2024.

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Acuña will see his first action since February 29.

Ronald Acuña Jr. is back in the Atlanta Braves’ lineup for Thursday’s Grapefruit League matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays. Acuña missed the last couple of weeks due to soreness in his right knee.

Acuña was scratched from the lineup on March 1 as a precaution due to the soreness. He later underwent an MRI and made a trip to see Dr. Neal ElAttrache in California for further evaluation. Dr. ElAttrache repaired the ACL in Acuña’s right knee after he was injured during the 2021 season. The MRI revealed irritation around the meniscus in Acuña’s knee and he was declared day-to-day with the expectation that he would be ready for the start of the season.

Acuña has been working out on the field and taking batting practice before games as he ramped up for a return. He returns to the lineup Thursday as the DH and will see more progression over the final two weeks of camp.

Acuña has appeared in three games during the spring and is 1-for-7 with a double. He’s coming off one of the best seasons in franchise history in 2023 where he won his first National League MVP Award.