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Braves top prospect Hurston Waldrep enjoying quite the turnaround

Originally posted on SportsTalkATL | By Chase Irle | Last updated May 22, 2025 8:52 AM ET

While all eyes were on Ronald Acuña Jr. Wednesday afternoon, who played nine innings in the field for the first time since his rehab assignment began, top prospect Hurston Waldrep was also on the bump for the Gwinnett Stripers.

The 2023 first-round pick got off to a brutal start to the season. Following a May 1st outing in which Waldrep failed to make it out of the first inning after allowing three runs on two hits and three walks, his ERA sat north of seven and he had yet to make it past the fifth inning in any of his five starts.

However, a change in mechanics has led to some much more promising results and completely changed Waldrep’s outlook this season. In his last three starts, he’s gone at least 5.1 innings and allowed just two earned runs in each of them. He’s struck out a remarkable 25 batters over his last 17.1 innings, and equally as impressive, has just seven walks in that span.

Hurston Waldrep. 9 K day.

6.0 IP | 6 H | 2 R | 2 ER | 2 BB | 9 SO pic.twitter.com/YZd79gNwww

— Gwinnett Stripers (@GoStripers) May 21, 2025

A big issue for Hurston Waldrep early this season has been his inability to really get ahead with his fastball, becoming way too reliant on his splitter. Over the last several starts, that hasn’t been the case, seemingly feeling a lot more comfortable with both his fastball and slider.

That’s the key to Waldrep becoming a successful starting pitcher at the major-league level. His splitter is among the best secondary offerings of any prospect arm, but nobody can have long-term success as a starter without a reliable heater, and Waldrep’s got a good one that sits in the mid to high-90s.

In a similar situation, Braves fans have recently watched another prospect arm become much more comfortable with his fastball at the major-league level in AJ Smith-Shawver. He’s now fearlessly pounding the zone with that pitch, and the results speak for themselves, as he owns a 1.50 ERA over his last five starts and is one of the favorites for the NL Rookie of the Year award alongside Drake Baldwin.

Hurston Waldrep is a similar type of arm, in terms of upside, and he could be the next guy Braves Country talks about in the same light as Spencer Schwellenbach and AJ Smith-Shawver.

This article first appeared on SportsTalkATL and was syndicated with permission.

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