Braves Infield Prospect Off to Hot Start in AA Mississippi

The Atlanta Braves have needed more impact hitters in the organization and they've got a budding star in AA Mississippi

Atlanta Braves shortstop Nacho Alvarez has been one of the hottest hitters in the AA Southern League after the first month of the minor league season / Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves are set, for the most part, when it comes to position players in the major leagues.

Atlanta's in the rare position of having a fully locked in position player core, with all eight defensive starters under team control for multiple seasons after this one.

But their first opening, coming in 2026, is at shortstop, where incumbent Orlando Arcia will be entering his age 31 season. Atlanta's holds a club option on him that would cost only $2M, and it feels like the plan will be to exercise it so that they can transition to a new shortstop.

The prospect in pole position to succeed Arcia is Nacho Alvarez, recently named by MLB Pipeline as Atlanta's "hottest hitting prospect" so far in 2024.

Alvarez, a 5th rounder in the 2022 MLB Draft out of Riverside City College in California, is assigned to AA Mississippi and has absolutely raked so far in 2024.

After a spring training in which he went 5-19 with five runs scored, Alvarez is 22 of 78 in Mississippi, having scored six runs and driven in seven in his first 21 games. He's also stolen eight bases, showing his speed.

What he hasn't really shown in his power, a point that MLB Pipeline makes in their article:

"There’s not a ton of impact here so far this year, but Alvarez keeps doing what he does well … really well. He’s hit .300 (seventh in the Southern League) with a .402 OBP (also seventh) to kick off the year with Double-A Mississippi. He only has two extra-base hits, but he has a 14.6 percent walk rate and rarely swings and misses, with just a 16 percent miss rate according to Synergy."

Entering his third season (and second full year), Alvarez has eight homers in 167 career games, with seven of those coming in High-A Rome last year.

But power's just not a big part of his game. MLB Pipeline, who has Alvarez rated as Atlanta's #6 prospect (and highest-ranked hitter), gives his power a 40 on the 20-80 scouting scale, stating that while he's capable of making some hard contact, he needs to improve his ground ball rates to put his power into games.

Even if the power doesn't come in at more than a 10-15 homer level, he's still a quality defender at shortstop, something that's surprised many evaluators after he was predominately a third baseman in college.

Alvarez isn't the only shortstop in the system that's promising - the #7 prospect in the system, one spot behind Alvarez, is top international signing Jose Perdomo, who joined the organization back in January. Atlanta's chosen to skip the Dominican Summer League with Perdomo, assigning him to the Florida Complex League team that kicks off play this week at the team's spring training facility in North Port, FL.

Given their respective ages - Alvarez is 21, while Perdomo is just 17 - Nacho should have the first opportunity at a starting spot in Atlanta, with an expected ETA of 2025 or 2026.