SOURCE: Braves Top Prospect Earns Promotion after Strong Return from Injury

One of the Atlanta Braves top prospects is moving up the minor league chain after impressing in his outings since returning from injury.

Atlanta Braves pitcher JR Ritchie has been good since returning from Tommy John surgery. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta Braves pitcher JR Ritchie spent the past year recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Braves selected him in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft, and he is currently listed as the No. 7 prospect in Atlanta's farm system.

Ritchie returned to the mound for the Augusta GreenJackets in early July, and is being promoted to High-A Rome for the final few weeks of the season and playoffs according to a source.

He has appeared in seven games for Augusta, starting six of them. He has a 1.95 ERA across 32.1 innings with an impressive WHIP of 1.02. He struck out 40 batters and walked just 10.

As expected, he's been particularly tough on opposing batters in August once he started getting stretched out and his command back.

In his last-four outings, Ritchie has thrown 20.1 innings, struck out 26 batters, given up three-earned runs (ERA 1.33) and walked just five (WHIP 0.93).

His promotion has been well earned after dominating batters in Augusta the past month.

JR Ritchie Scouting Report from MLB.com:

When Ritchie is healthy, he shows off a potential four-pitch mix and had an impressive feel for his repertoire, especially given his age (Ritchie turned 21 in June). His fastball was typically sitting in the low-90s, and he could reach back for 95-96, but it’s his ability to spin breaking stuff that really made him stand out. His slider has become a plus out pitch, a sharp low-80s breaker that misses a ton of bats, but he also folds in a decent slower curve. He should have an average changeup with good deception thanks to good arm speed.