The 2022 first rounder was on the road to a breakout in 2024 before Tommy John surgery shut him down
It was a busy opening day of the week for the Atlanta Braves affiliates, with a number of prospects making returns from injury. Drue Hackenberg, Luke Sinnard, and Ethan Bagwell each returned to their respective squads to make their first start in months, but the biggest news came from the FCL Braves. There, 2022 first round pick Owen Murphy made his first appearance of the season in his return from Tommy John surgery.
(40-57) Gwinnett Stripers 4, (49-46) Memphis Redbirds 3
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-5, 3B, .218/.294/.326
- Carlos Rodriguez, RF: 1-3, HR, BB, RBI, .279/.354/.351
- Didier Fuentes, SP: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 6.35 ERA
- Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 6.52 ERA
Didier Fuentes had a rough start to his outing but was able to put it together in the final two innings to salvage a bit of good energy for the first time in a few starts. Fuentes got tagged in the first inning for a home run by Cardinals top prospect JJ Wetherholt, then in the second allowed three hits, two on hard hit balls, scoring two runs to put the Stripers in an early hole. Fuentes would thankfully settle in after this and started missing bats, notching three strikeouts over the final 2 2⁄3 innings, before a tapped single on the infield ended his day before he could complete five innings. Fuentes threw plenty of strikes in this game but his fastball locations was poor and too often drifted down belt high where hitters were able to hit him hard. He also operated without much feel for either of his breaking balls, landing very few of either his sweeper or curveball in great spots, though even with the poor location he combined for five whiffs on ten swings at those two pitches. Fuentes has been struggling with his command and while it doesn’t always show up with walks he is going to have to get back to landing his sweeper better on his glove side and elevating his fastball, as he has left himself open to getting hit hard since first getting called to Triple-A
It was a positive outing for Jhancarlos Lara, who pitched a breezy eighth inning and struck out one batter to get the hold. While he did have a hiccup earlier in July when he was having trouble with his release point he has had a strong run of repeating his mechanics and has been arguably Gwinnett’s most effective reliever for over a month now. While his command instability does make him a bit too risky to put in real leverage spots at the major league level now, he seems to be at the point where (especially given his upcoming Rule 5 eligibility) it might be time to get him middle relief innings at the major league level and get him a chance to work with that staff. Lara and Wes McGuire have done a terrific job of getting his release point much more consistent and he seems ready for the major league challenge, though given the unlikelihood of Atlanta competing this season they don’t seem as keen on plugging in Rule 5 eligible guys this season as they typically have been.
The pitching staff did a phenomenal job of holding on after Fuentes’s rough early innings, and the offense was able to make a rare comeback with late runs and some hard hit balls. Jarred Kelenic got the game started off sharp too, though he was a bit fooled by a changeup to lead off the game he managed to get his bat and hit a solid line drive, splitting the gap in left center and racing around for a triple. He scored on a sharp line drive out from Luke Waddell, giving Gwinnett an early yet short-lived lead. The game really got its start in the sixth inning when Waddell and Jonathan Ornelas drew walks, and Eddys Leonard had a hard hit single to load the bases. With the bases juiced Conner Capel had a chance to stamp his mark on this game, and he came through by chopping a base hit just past the second baseman to score two runners and tie the game. In the 8th inning the game finally swung fully back in Gwinnett’s favor. Carlos Rodriguez hit a solid fly ball out to right field, and he was barely able to sneak it over the wall for a go-ahead home run.
Swing and Misses
Didier Fuentes – 8
Jhancarlos Lara – 3
Nathan Wiles – 3
(37-51) Columbus Clingstones 5, (48-39) Chattanooga Lookouts 6
- Ethan Workinger, RF: 1-4, RBI, .224/.294/.414
- David McCabe, 3B: 2-4, 2B, .283/.375/.403
- Drue Hackenberg, SP: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 7.07 ERA
- Elison Joseph, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 2.96 ERA
Drue Hackenberg finally got back on the mound for Columbus for the first time since mid-May, but he started off poorly in what was a dreary day overall for the pitching staff. Though it was a shaky start overall with his command understandably poor given both his history of command trouble and the fact he’s shaking off rust from his injured list stint, all of the damage against him came in just a five-pitch span. Hackenberg started off the second inning with a strike, but a bouncing ball down the third base line was able to sneak past David McCabe for a double, and Chattanooga jumped all over Hackenberg when he failed to execute to the next two hitters. A center cut sinker got hammered the opposite way for a two-run home run to put the Lookouts on top, then Hackenberg grooved another one to the next batter that was mashed for a back-to-back shot. Hackenberg avoided damage for the rest of his outing, but it was never really a settled game. He continued to struggle locating any of his pitches effectively over the entire inning, and faced baserunners in each inning before being pulled in the middle of the fourth inning.
The offense had Hackenberg’s back, however, and if it weren’t for each of the next three relievers all allowing runs the Clingstones could have put together a nice comeback win. David McCabe had two hits in this game to keep his impressive month going, running his on base streak to 12 games and raising his OPS in July to .994. The best of his swings was a seventh inning double where he turned on a low sinker and smoked it for a line drive into right field, and he has been much better at timing up fastballs all month. Kobe Kato’s absolute moonshot home run gave the Clingstones a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning, but three straight scoring innings from the Lookouts answered every rally Columbus could muster. By far the best performance for any Clingstone on the game came from Elison Joseph in the ninth inning as he dominated in his lone inning of relief. Joseph threw 14 pitches and Chattanooga made contact with none of them. He struck out all three batters swinging and had whiffs on all six swings, five on sliders and one on a fastball. Joseph’s walk rates this season have been atrocious and have prevented him from making the next step and advancing to Gwinnett, yet he is still getting swing-and-miss well over 35% of the time, in line with his numbers from lower levels. Half of his walks came in a confoundingly bad month of June, where otherwise he has struck out 32% of batters faced while walking a still-poor 18%.
Swing and Misses
Drue Hackenberg – 8
Elison Joseph – 6
(38-50) Rome Emperors 3, (53-35) Hudson Valley Renegades 4
- Will Verdung, 3B: 3-4, RBI, .281/.375/.331
- Ambioris Tavarez, 2B: 1-4, .236/.341/.318
- Luke Sinnard, SP: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 4.50 ERA
- Adam Maier, RP: 4 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 5.29 ERA
It was a Tuesday dominated by players returning from injury, and if there is one most likely to be of impact in the next couple of years for Atlanta it would be Luke Sinnard. Sinnard had an impressive 10 whiffs on 27 swings this game (37%) and the Hudson Valley lineup posed little challenge for him. Sinnard’s outing stood out for how sharp his fastball command was despite missing a month and a half, as he really had success right from the first pitch at elevating the pitch to the top edge of the strike zone. It took a bit more time for him to dial in the location on his curveball and cutter, but once he started landing them in the third inning he excelled and Renegades hitters had no real answer to him. Still he mostly had success and cruised with his fastball until a questionable call at first base where the umpire judged Sinnard didn’t touch the base put a runner on and may have thrown Sinnard off of his game a bit. He threw the next three pitches out of the zone, then allowed the only really hard hit ball of the game on a line drive double to score the runner. On the play both he and Lizandro Espinoza made throwing errors, allowing the runner to get a little league inside-the-park home run and ending Sinnard’s day on a sour note.
Adam Maier came in out of the bullpen and looked fairly good for Rome, though there were a couple of times where his control faded he located his sinker solidly throughout the game and only gave up one hard hit ball in the air. It was his breaking balls that actually gave him the most trouble as he wasn’t able to bury them in key counts and Renegades hitters got some line drive singles off of hangers. This led to Maier letting up two runs in the game and seven hits overall, though it’s rare to see his breaking balls be the biggest problem for him. The sinker location was a positive takeaway from this game, he just really needs to have a couple of games where he actually puts it all together as he hasn’t done so this season. The offense wasn’t able to get anything going until the eighth inning, when finally they strung all the hits together at once despite not having any extra base hits. Ground balls were finding holes and going for singles, and in addition to two walks in the inning the Emperors scored three runs and tied the game. All that just for Maier to give the lead up in the next half inning when he hung a curveball up in the middle of the strike zone with two runners on and it got slapped through for a go-ahead single.
Swing and Misses
Luke Sinnard – 10
Adam Maier – 7
(45-44) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (50-40) Hickory Crawdads 1
- Owen Carey, DH: 3-3, 2B, BB, RBI, .259/.338/.345
- Eric Hartman, CF: 3-4, HR, 2B, BB, 2 RBI, .237/.348/.395
- Isaiah Drake, LF: 1-5, RBI, .250/.338/.349
- Ethan Bagwell, SP: 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1.47 ERA
This was a fun one for the GreenJackets, as they got back a piece that the Braves and the Augusta coaching staff are really excited about in Ethan Bagwell, and had a monster showing from Eric Hartman to lead a great offensive game. In the third inning Hartman got a fastball elevated on the inner half of the plate, and that’s a spot he loves to see the ball. He was able to turn on that pitch and crush a fly ball, carrying it out over the right field wall for a solo home run. Hartman did it two more times on inside pitches, rocketing a base hit in the fifth inning and then getting his third very hard hit ball of the game in the seventh inning when he sent a line drive down into the right field corner for a double. It was a needed big day for Hartman who had a couple of poor series in a row, though overall this month he has been hitting the cover off of the ball. He has six extra base hits and a .217 isolated power this month, and has been in the groove with hitting the ball hard on his pull side. Owen Carey followed up a Hartman in the third inning with a pretty looking double, ripping an outside fastball the opposite way into the gap for a double. Carey reached base in all five of his plate appearances this game, though his other two hits weren’t quite as hard hit. Carey hasn’t tapped the power in game like Hartman just yet, and up until Sunday hadn’t had an extra base hit in July, but he’s shown the ability to hit the ball hard foul pole to foul pole.
For a young player who hasn’t played at this level in three months, Ethan Bagwell was impressively solid at locating his fastball up in the strike zone in this outing. The broadcast had him at 93-94 mph this game, and with Bagwell showing a low release and dotting that pitch up early in the game he was able to really overwhelm Hickory hitters. The next few innings they seemed a bit more prepared as he was leaning heavily on his fastball usage, but they never managed to come up with solid contact other than a double in that first inning. Bagwell is ahead of where I expected him to be in terms of both velocity and location and you can clearly see the building blocks for an impressive starting pitcher. It will be important to see how the Braves develop his slider and changeup usage over his next few starts, but this one was an eye-opener for what should be an exciting final month.
Swing and Misses
Adam Shoemaker – 9
Ethan Bagwell – 8
(20-37) FCL Braves 5, (27-31) FCL Pirates 1
- Jose Perdomo, SS: 0-4, .218/.271/.265
- Michael Martinez, LF: 1-2, 2B, BB, .229/.289/.486
- Junior Garcia, CF: 1-3, 2B, .206/.287/.340
- Owen Murphy, SP: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 0.00 ERA
There was basically no buzz at all on Owen Murphy, only for him to come out of nowhere to make his first rehab start for the FCL Braves and immediately strike out the side in order in the first inning. The Pirates were actually able to make some contact after that, but in the end Murphy did as one would expect him to do and retired all nine batters he faced with five strikeouts. According to reports his fastball is sitting at pre-surgery levels (though he hasn’t stretched out yet) at 90-94 mph, and this is a great sign. Typically pitchers on this short of a recovery track add velocity slowly after returning, and if he can get an extra tick or two on his fastball and get back to his prep velocity it would drastically alter his profile. Given the timing of his comeback he should be able to get some starts in full season ball this season, and exciting prospect that should hopefully set up a chance to get his career back on its accelerated track in 2026. After a decent run of success Jose Perdomo had his first bad game in awhile, striking out twice in a game for the first time in two weeks while going hitless. Michael Martinez stayed the course, however, getting yet another double and finally drawing his first walk at the FCL level.
(14-20) DSL Braves 3, (16-19) DSL CLE Goryl 8
- Angel Carmona, DH: 1-5, HR, 2 RBI, .250/.333/.625
- Elisandro Ramirez, RF: 2-4, 2B, .283/.441/.363487
- Gensi Angeles, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2.45 ERA
It’s been a great professional debut for Gensi Angeles, and in his second straight start he had another solid day where his ability to command the ball made life difficult for the opponent. His command at this age has been impressive and with a low 90’s fastball and a slider there is the makings of a guy who will be one to watch in the FCL next year. The game went quite awry for Edwardys Hildalgo, however, as he allowed six runs and Cleveland ran amay with a game. Angel Carmona is a signee from this offseason’s class that is just now playing his second game, but already has his first professional home run.