Atlanta Braves: Austin Riley has a big Sunday
The Atlanta Braves had a nice win on Sunday at the major league level, but AAA Gwinnett saw very feasibly the next major star take flight
The Atlanta Braves have now seen top prospect Ronald Acuna, Jr. come up to the major leagues and have success. The Braves have seen Mike Soroka come up and toss multiple excellent starts. Atlanta Braves fans are seeing young Ozzie Albies top the National League leaderboard in home runs.
Sunday, Austin Riley made it known in the Atlanta metro area that he certainly intends to have his name mentioned in the same breath as all of those names, and then some!
Atlanta Braves current 3B situation
For a team with two of the top 5 third basemen in the game’s history having spent the majority (or all) of their careers with the Braves, the hot corner would be a point of pride, at least one would think, anyway. Instead, the Atlanta Braves received some warranted criticism for not pursuing third base options in free agency this winter, instead opening the season with Ryan Flaherty at the position when other options struggled in the spring and/or were injured.
Flaherty opened the season well, and his glove work is first-rate as usual over his career, but after hitting .362/.471/.500 through April 21st, Flaherty’s come back down to Earth, hitting .200/.256/.275 since the Mets left town after the 21st.
The Atlanta Braves signed Jose Bautista, and he worked his way to the major leagues playing the hot corner, but much like the struggles he had in 2016-2017, he’s continued to either hit for power, take a walk, or provide not much at all offensively in the early going with the Braves.
That could leave the door open for a hot minor league bat to take the spot.
Austin Riley’s ascent
Enter Austin Riley. Riley was the Atlanta Braves third selection in the 2015 MLB draft, going behind Kolby Allard (14) and Mike Soroka (28), being selected 41st overall. Many thought his long swing would be a hindrance to long-term success as a hitter and thought his big arm would work better on the mound.
Riley’s taken that idea and after really struggling with defense his draft season and his first full season at Rome, he’s dedicated himself to his craft. While his swing was a concern early in the season last year, he’s done what guys with big, long swings need to do to succeed – learning the game inside and outside to recognize pitches quicker and know when to unleash that big swing.
The results were impressive as he moved up to AA last season in mid-July and finished the year with a .900 OPS and 8 home runs over 58 games in AA before hitting .300 with 6 home runs and a 1.021 OPS in the Arizona Fall League.
With many fans worried the Atlanta Braves may skip out on possible talent to hold a spot for a prospect that hasn’t seen the major leagues when this offseason’s free agent class comes, Austin Riley seemed to decide he wanted to give the Braves every reason to give him major league run by the end of the year.
He opened his 2018 in AA Mississippi hitting .333/.394/.677 over 27 games with 6 home runs to earn a promotion up to AAA. He’s only spent 7 games in AAA, but Sunday, he made a big impression, hitting his first 3 home runs in one game as he’s now hit .345/.387/.690 with Gwinnett in a week’s worth of games.
Austin Riley will likely not get up to the majors for at least another month, and he could be a guy who stays in the minors until the second half of the major league season, but there’s every reason to believe he’ll be with the Atlanta Braves in 2018.