Braves Top 2025 Draft Pick Establishing Himself in Single-A

Tate Southisene is a month into his first full professional baseball season, and the Atlanta Braves should be happy with what they see. Now that he's had some time to adjust, he's performing at a solid level.

Offensively, he's batting .271 with a .920 OPS, four home runs, 17 RBIs and 10 extra-base hits with Single-A Augusta. The 19-year-old prospect is showing solid plate discipline, even with the 24% strikeout rate. He's drawing walks at a 17% rate. Pitchers aren't getting an easy out by any means, even if they set him down on strikes one-fourth of the time.

One the basepaths, he already has 20 stolen bases on 24 attempts, and it's the first week of May. He's averaging nearly one swiped bag per game. He's on pace to steal 100 bases this season, if he never misses a game.

That's probably an unrealistic expectation for a full season, but it provides context to what he's already accomplished. Simply mentioning that he has a total that most would be happy with having in a single season didn't do the pace its proper justice.

Southisene was the Braves' first-round pick in the 2025 draft. He was taken ahead of other standout prospects who are new to the system, such as his teammate Alex Lodise. He was listed as a shortstop and outfielder at the time of being drafted, but he's yet to see action at the latter position.

His most played position so far has actually been second base, because Lodise is manning the shortstop position. On the bright side, it's given them a chance to build chemistry as a middle-infield duo. That could have some payoff down the line.

All of his tools were rated at least a 50 at the time of being drafted, with his speed garnering a 60 rating (plus). Lo and behold, the took with the highest rating has the most eyepopping stat so far to go along with it. However, his slashline in general highlights his tools one way or another.

His defense at shortstop hasn't been too clean - he already has four errors at the position in 12 games. However, he's been playing much cleaner at second base, only giving Single-A Augusta further insentive to keep getting him reps there.

Southisene is expected to reach the majors in 2029, which would be his age-22 season. He has plenty of challenges ahead of him before he gets to that point, but this is almost as good of a start as he could have to this season.

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