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Oct 28, 2023

Atlanta Braves 2023 MLB Draft Primer

Filed under: Everything you need to know about the upcoming draft We are

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Everything you need to know about the upcoming draft

We are officially one month away from the opening of the 2023 MLB first year player draft, and you can look forward to Battery Power being right with you through the process. The draft is one of our favorite times of the year around here, and will be a busy time on the site. To kick off our official draft coverage we have a primer on the key facts about the draft and our plans for this season.

The most important part about following the draft is knowing where and when to tune in, and once again this year it will be a part of All Star week festivities. The draft kicks off on July 9th in Seattle and will run until July 11th. Day one of the draft will cover the top two rounds along with the compensation rounds through overall pick number 70, and should kick off around 7 pm though we haven't received official confirmation of times just yet. Day two of the draft will cover rounds three through ten and day three will cover the final 10 rounds of the draft. We’ll have a preview on the day of the draft detailing exact TV schedules, but the draft will be streaming on MLB.com and MLB Network. Days two and three will be broadcast on MLB.com and will be a faster-paced run through of the picks beginning some time in the early afternoon.

If you don't care much for other team's picks then you can probably tune in to that MLB Network stream pretty late, as the Atlanta Braves won't be on the clock until the 24th overall pick. Following that they’ll pick 59th overall in the second round and then finish out all day one selections with the 70th overall pick in the second compensation round. The Braves received this 70th overall pick as compensation for losing Dansby Swanson in free agency. In the lead up to the draft the Braves could trade this 70th overall pick if they so chose, or could pull a trade similar to last year's trade for the 35th overall pick to bolster their options.

For those who don't know how the drafting system works, the basic run down is that each team is allotted a certain amount of money for each pick in the first ten rounds, and in signing players can't go over the total amount of those pick values combined without facing penalties. The Braves will likely have certain players that go over or under their pick values, but won't exceed their overall pool by more than 5% as anything above that number would cause them to forfeit future draft picks. For players picked after the tenth round every team is allotted $125k, and any signing bonus above that number would count against their pool.

The bonus pool for the Braves first round pick is $3,270,500, but Atlanta will likely not reach this number as they have signed their first pick in the draft to an underslot deal in every single year of Alex Anthopoulos's tenure. This will allow them to spread this money out in later rounds to better utilize their overall pool of $8,341,700.

We have covered a few mock drafts from major publications here, and will continue to do so throughout the draft season, but right now the short answer is that no one seems to have a clear grasp on what the Braves are looking to do. In every year that the Braves have had a first round pick in the latter half of the draft they have gone with pitching in the first round, and in the past three season they have not taken any hitters in the top two rounds of the draft. This season the connections have been particularly weak, but as in the most recent mock draft from Baseball America many publications think the Braves will be looking towards high school hitters this season. The names recently mentioned have been George Lombard Jr, Walker Martin, Bryce Eldridge, and Aidan Miller. The most recent time the Braves have drafted a high school bat in the first three rounds of the draft was Michael Harris II back in 2019, and you have to go back to Jason Heyward in 2007 to find the last time they took a high school hitter in the first round.

Battery Power's coverage is once again going to be headlined by the work of our draft guru Matt Powers, and will be greatly helped by the additions of Devin Csigi and Brady Petree. We will have articles running down the needs for the system at every position along with the top prospects at those positions, then will transition towards focusing on individual players that could be top targets as we get closer to the draft. We’re also planning on firing up our podcasting mics and will have a draft preview as well as a recap of the draft. On the day of the draft we’ll be doing individual write ups of all the early round picks as well as daily recaps of the action, because while you may not have time to follow the random high school players from Nowhereville, Montana, we will have all you need to know about them ready to go. Following the draft we will once again have our yearly signing tracker so you can keep up with who the Braves pay what amount of money.