Braves top prospect’s concerning season continues

Outside of Drake Baldwin and AJ Smith-Shawver, who both began the season on the major-league roster, the Braves top prospect entering the 2025 campaign was 2023 first-round pick Hurston Waldrep. That no longer appears to be the case, as he continues to show signs of regression with the Gwinnett Stripers.

For the second time this season, Waldrep failed to make it out of the first inning on Sunday afternoon. He only recorded one out and managed to give up six earned runs on just two hits, thanks to four walks, which have been a staple of his season thus far.

There was a stretch from May 8th to May 28th where Waldrep appeared to have found an answer to his control issues after tweaking his mechanics, but he now has eight walks over his last 5.1 innings pitched, a stretch during which he’s allowed nine earned runs. For the season, he has 34 walks in just 51.0 innings, leading to a 1.75 WHIP and gaudy 6.35 ERA.

At 23 and in just his second full season at the professional level, it’s still very early in Waldrep’s career. Control problems are commonplace for damn near every prospect pitcher in the history of baseball. It’s generally the last thing that comes, but when it does, the results often take a sharp turn for the better.

The hopes of him contributing in Atlanta this year appear to be all but dashed, and Waldrep will surely experience a sharp slide across the board when it comes to prospect rankings. However, we saw this with AJ Smith-Shawver coming into this season, and as things finally started to click for him, he had established himself as a leading candidate in the NL Rookie of the Year race before an unfortunate UCL injury ended his season.

To consider Hurston Waldrep a bust would be premature, but it is fair to start questioning whether the bar might have been set a little too high for him when he was having success last season. He still appears a long way from contributing to the team in Atlanta.