The Braves may have found another wave of talent in the draft, and AJ Gracia is already giving the fan base a reason to smile.
A week into his time in the organization, the first-round pick from Jersey wasted no time embracing the rivalry angle.
“Growing up in Jersey, I had a lot of friends who are Mets fans,” Gracia said. “Hopefully, I can torture them.”
Atlanta took Gracia with the ninth overall pick, and he looks like one of the names most likely to climb quickly in the system. He’s also expected to be one of three players from this year’s draft class who land in the Braves’ Top 10 prospects when that list is updated in a few weeks.
That would fit a pattern that’s already taken shape over the last three drafts. The Braves have added a serious amount of talent in a short span, and the 2024 class in particular has already changed the look of the organization’s prospect picture.
Cam Caminiti sits at the top of the Braves’ prospect rankings and is MLB’s No. 42 prospect after being selected 24th overall two years ago. Right behind him is Eric Hartman, Atlanta’s No. 2 prospect and MLB’s No. 76 prospect, even though he was taken with the 611th overall pick in 2024. That year included 615 total selections.
Hartman has backed up that rise with production at High-A Rome, where he has hit 21 homers, stolen 31 bases and posted a .880 OPS in 82 games. The Braves found a major bargain there, and the result has become one of the clearest signs that the club’s recent drafting has started to pay off in a big way.
The system had taken its lumps in recent years. The international signing bans handed down after the 2017 season left a real dent in the organization’s depth. But even with those issues, the Braves have still kept turning out impact players.
Michael Harris II won NL Rookie of the Year in 2022, Drake Baldwin did the same in 2025, and Spencer Strider finished second in 2022. That kind of track record says plenty about the development side of the house, no matter where the farm system was ranked.
And the latest draft classes have only added to the momentum.
Tate Southisene, Alex Lodise and Briggs McKenzie were all taken in the 2025 MLB Draft and already show up among Atlanta’s top prospects, ranked No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6, respectively. Southisene, just 19, is holding his own at High-A and could eventually break into MLB’s Top 100 Prospects list.
This year’s group has its own set of headliners. Along with Gracia, the Braves like second-rounder Kaiden McCarthy and third-rounder Jensen Hirschkorn, both of whom are strong candidates to crack the organization’s Top 10. Seventh-round catcher Jack Brenner, who had been committed to Oklahoma, is another name worth watching.
Hirschkorn’s path to Atlanta was helped by Gracia’s decision to take a signing bonus well below the slot value attached to the No. 9 pick. That flexibility allowed the Braves to hand Hirschkorn the biggest bonus ever given to a player drafted after the second round, a $3,997,500 deal that pulled him away from his LSU commitment.
“There's not a whole lot [Hirschkorn] can’t do,” Braves vice president of amateur scouting Ronit Shah said. “He's athletic.
He's a big-time basketball guy. We're really excited to see what he can do.
He throws a ton of strikes. We saw him in the summer at a big-time event, the Area Code Games.
He struck out nine guys in three innings. It’s hard to do better than that."
Gracia also signed for $3,997,500, while the slot value for the ninth pick was $6,675,300. At the college level, he put together a steady power profile, posting an OPS above 1.000 in every season and reaching 1.121 this spring. Over his career, he hit 43 home runs, 39 doubles and batted .317, with his homer totals split evenly at 14, 15 and 14.
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