The AFL has given Braves prospect watchers a little bit of everything, and the biggest story of the week is that Tate Southisene just keeps climbing. The 20-year-old reached base nine times, went 5-for-14 with five runs, a triple, four walks and just two strikeouts, and his approach keeps separating him from the pack of Braves positional prospects.
Southisene’s feel for the strike zone was on display again. He limited chases and showed a real knack for recognizing spin, which has become a calling card.
He still doesn’t qualify for the league leader boards because he got started late, but his .949 OPS would sit 18th overall in the AFL. The injury piece is impossible to ignore, either; had he stayed healthy, he’d be sitting in a very different place stock-wise, and the source material makes clear he’s already being viewed as a clear top 100 prospect in all of baseball.
Owen Carey also turned in a useful week, though in a much smaller sample. He went 3-for-8 with two runs, two triples, three RBI and two walks across just two games for the Desert Dogs.
Carey has had his share of ups and downs in the AFL, but the loudest tool in his profile has been the bat speed. The tradeoff is contact, where he’s had the lowest contact rate of the trio, even while carrying the highest ISO among them.
And age matters here too: he only turned 20 three months ago, which keeps the long-term outlook plenty interesting heading toward 2027.
Isaiah Drake added another small but telling note to his AFL stint, drawing a walk in a 0-for-2 week in one game. Drake, too, is coming back from injury, and the plate discipline remains a real bright spot.
He continues to avoid chase, but he’s also been hyper aggressive within the zone, which has led to weak contact at times. The encouraging part is the yearly growth.
The 21-year-old has improved every season, and the next step heading into 2027 is getting better swing decisions inside the strike zone so he can create higher-quality contact. For the 2023 fifth-round pick, there’s still a lot to like.
On the mound, Briggs McKenzie delivered another strong outing, working five innings and allowing two hits with no runs, two walks and four strikeouts. It came on the heels of another good start, and the workload matters: he’s now thrown nine innings over his last two starts after logging just 26 total innings in 2026.
The new slider was the headline pitch, averaging 2800 RPM and showing up against both lefties and righties. His four-seam fastball was the second-most-used pitch, though command was a little inconsistent, drifting arm-side at times.
Even so, it generated a 40% whiff rate when it landed in the zone. The big question for 2027 is health and arm strength, since he had 26 innings in 2026 and none in 2025.
If his velocity comes up and holds, there’s clearly something special here.
Tyler LaPorte kept rolling without giving up a run, covering 1.1 innings with no hits, no walks and a strikeout. He leaned on his sinker, curveball and changeup, with the breaking and offspeed pitches flashing plus even though neither produced a whiff in this outing. Some luck may have been involved, but the bottom line is that LaPorte has done nothing but impress and has given the Braves a unique arm to evaluate in 2027.
Owen Hackman also continued to settle in, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings on just 14 pitches. He pounded the zone with three of his four pitches and posted a 71.4% strike rate.
After a rough early stretch in the AFL, he’s put together stronger results lately, helped by what appears to be a plus changeup to go with his sweeper and slider. The move to the bullpen could end up being a real boost.
Logan Samuels nearly covered two full innings and finished with 1.2 innings, one hit, no runs, one walk, three strikeouts and a hit by pitch. The outing was described as effectively chaotic, and he looked noticeably better against left-handed hitters than right-handed ones. Even with that unevenness, he still managed almost two scoreless frames while showing a sinker, slider and changeup that all graded around average to slightly above.
Tanner Bauman rounded out the week with 1.1 scoreless innings, allowing no hits and one walk while striking out three. His command was spotty, reflected in a 48% strike rate, but he made enough pitches in the zone to miss bats all the same.
The result was a 63.6% whiff rate, powered by a full mix that included the curveball, four-seam, slider, changeup and sinker. None of those pitches were described as better than roughly average to below, but the outing still fit the “chaotically good” label.
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The fit never really took hold in Atlanta. Payamps got into 12 games for the Braves in 2026 and struggled badly enough that the club moved on quickly, designating him for assignment on May 1. For a bullpen that needed help, it was a miss that unraveled almost as soon as it began. [Read more 🡒]