Hurston Waldrep of the Atlanta Braves is looking like the best pitching prospect from the 2023 MLB Draft not named Paul Skenes.
Right now, the right-hander is doing a fine impersonation of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ young superstar – at a fraction of the cost and without blowing them away on fastballs.
Waldrep has won all three of his starts since being called up from the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers. The 23-year-old dominated the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night in his best outing yet. The right-hander allowed two hits and two walks over six scoreless innings, striking out seven and getting six other outs on ground balls.
“He’s a different guy than what I remember last year,” Braves manager Brian Snitker told reporters after watching Waldrep command a devastating split-finger pitch that more than complemented his upper-90s (mph) fastball and sharp slider.
A year ago, Waldrep was walloped in two starts for Atlanta, giving up 13 runs over seven innings for an unsightly 16.71 earned run average.
Nevertheless, Snitker praised the youngster then: “I thought he handled himself really well for the limited experience he has. His composure and all of that stuff was really good. He’s another young guy with a lot of upside.”
It was all upside in Cleveland. All his pitches had remarkable movement all night. He kept them in the strike zone, something that had been a challenge in the minors. All-star outfielder Steven Kwan got the only two hits off him.
“He was pitching off the slider/cutter (mix) and executed the split when needed,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He landed his curveball early. That’s some impressive stuff.”
The Road To The Atlanta Braves
Waldrep grew up as a Braves fan in Thomasville, Ga., about 225 miles due south of Atlanta.
“I’ve been watching them since I was 6 years old, ever since I fell in love with baseball.” he told Mark Bowman of MLB.com in 2023. “I could name every Braves player and still can.”
The Braves became Waldrep fans upon seeing his impressive arsenal when he was at the University of Florida in 2023 after transferring from Southern Mississippi. He went 10-3 and struck out 156 in 101 2/3 innings as the Gators went to the College World Series. In three college seasons overall, he had a 17-5 record and fanned 312 over 208 innings.
“We love the pure stuff he has,” Braves assistant scouting director Ronit Shah told Bowman after the draft. “He’s athletic. He’s got three plus pitches, maybe four. The splitter might be the best secondary pitch in the whole Draft for us.”
Atlanta chose Waldrep at No. 24 overall and paid him a nice signing bonus of $2,997,500. That was more than $6 million less than the Pirates’ record $9.2 million paid to top pick Skenes.
While Skenes made his MLB debut last year after only 12 overpowering minor-league starts, Waldrep was merely mortal in 46 outings in the Braves’ farm system. He had only a 12-16 record and 3.61 ERA. The big problem was walks – 111 of them in 214 1/3 innings.
