Eric Hartman: A Braves prospect everybody needs to know

For the first time in years, the Atlanta Braves have some exciting offensive prospects climbing through the lower levels of the farm system, and nobody is generating more buzz right now than Eric Hartman.

Hartman is a Canadian prospect that the Braves selected in the 20th round of the 2024 MLB Draft — not exactly the portion of the draft where teams typically discover the next Mike Trout. Yet through the first six weeks of the 2026 season, Hartman has flashed traits that are reminiscent of many players that currently make up the Braves’ core.

Entering the weekend, he was already hitting north of .300 with an OPS hovering above 1.000. Naturally, most people expected at least some regression to hit eventually. Hartman apparently has other ideas. He responded by launching three home runs and ripping three doubles over the weekend, pushing his season average to .331 while raising his OPS to a ridiculous 1.126.

Through just 31 games with High-A Rome, Hartman already has 22 extra-base hits, 12 of which have left the yard. And the power isn’t the only intriguing part of the profile. He’s an impressive athlete as well, capable of moving around defensively while swiping 13 bags in 16 attempts.

Of course, context still matters here.

We are talking about a relatively small sample size in High-A baseball. Hartman still has plenty of developmental boxes left to check before he’s viewed as a prospect knocking on the door of the majors. But it’s also important to remember this isn’t some polished 22-year-old college bat beating up on younger competition.

Hartman is just 19 years old. The power is real, the athleticism is obvious, and the production is becoming impossible to dismiss. This a player most people didn’t even know existed before the start of the season; that’s not going to be the case for much longer.

Hartman is about to start showing up inside top-10 prospect rankings across the board for the Braves, and if he continues producing anywhere close to this level over the rest of the season, he’s going to force his way into the conversation as a top-100 prospect in all of baseball — potentially claiming the top spot in the organization.

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