Major League Baseball announced the rosters for the Arizona Fall League, and seven Atlanta Braves prospects will be playing in the league this season.
The headliners of Atlanta's group are undoubtedly David McCabe and Dylan Dodd.
McCabe, a 4th round pick in 2022, finished this season with High-A Rome, where he batted .281 with nine home runs in 81 games. Playing almost entirely third base this season, McCabe's rated the #16 prospect in Atlanta's system by MLB Pipeline. He has fantastic raw power but has struggled to get it into games, with a career .427 slugging percentage and only 18 homers in his 152 games as a professional. Hopefully the warm, dry air in the desert can help him find his power stroke.
Dodd, a 2021 3rd rounder, is looking for the consistency needed to get him in Atlanta to stay. He was 2-2 with a 7.52 ERA in his 6 major league starts, walking 11 and striking out only 14 in 28.1 innings. His time in Gwinnett was similar from an ERA perspective, with a 3-6 record and 6.24 ERA in his 15 games (14 starts). Dodd challenged for the 5th starter's job out of spring training and even pitched in the opening week of the season, but never quite got his footing in the bigs after his first start against St. Louis.
Joining McCabe and Dodd are infielder Keshawn Ogans, catcher Tyler Tolve, and pitchers Patrick Halligan, Jake McSteen, and Brooks Wilson. Also, Atlanta's Jesus Aviles, who spent the season with High-A Rome, is a coach for Salt River, with Angel Flores joining the support staff for the 2023 season.
The MLB-organized and supported Arizona Fall League starts play on Monday, October 2nd and runs for six weeks. Each of the six teams get players from five connected organizations, with Atlanta joining the Detroit Tigers, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Arizona Diamondbacks in supplying the Salt River Rafters with six players each, a minimum of four of them being pitchers.
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