2025 Braves Prospect Year in Review: Alex Lodise Stands Out in Debut

With their second-round pick in the 2025 draft, the Atlanta Braves snagged shortstop Alex Lodise out of Florida State. While he might have fallen out of the first round, some argue it was a steal of a pick. After all, he was coming off winning the college baseball equivalent of the Heisman, the Dick Howser Trophy.

After batting nearly .400 during the most recent college baseball season and posting an OPS well over 1.100, it’s clear what the Braves saw from him. Now, he just has to show that he can succeed with a wooden bat in hand against other players good enough to play in affiliated ball.

The numbers overall don’t stand out immediately. He batted .256 with a .692 OPS in 25 games with High-Rome. Albeit having 10 of your 26 hits being for extra bases wasn’t too shabby. Where you see him shine out of the gate came in key moments. It’s the flashes of what he can do once he finds consistency that stand out for now.

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His professional baseball debut on Aug. 1 was one of his bigger games of the year. He went 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and three RBIs. On Aug. 17, he went 3-for-5 and 4-for-5 on Aug. 30. He managed six multi-hit games in his first six weeks of action in the minor leagues. There were only six games in which he didn’t reach base at all.

He could have taken better advantage of the high volume of plate appearances he got per game. But that’s constructive criticism. We saw what he can do in flashes. If he can do it in spurts, it’s reasonable to think he is capable of becoming more consistent in each game.

There is a very easy stat to check where improvement can be made and further consistency can be found: his strikeout rate. Pitchers sat him down on strikes 42 times in 109 plate appearances (38.5%). That needs a lot of work. That needs to be cut in half, at least, if he wants to succeed at higher levels of professional baseball.

It’s a balancing act. It’s finding greater discipline at the plate without losing the stroke that generates the shots in the gap and ultimately, as he bulks up further, more home runs. Don’t forget he hit 17 home runs with aluminum. These guys have to learn to hit moonshots with maple or ash wood now. It will require some more reps in the weight room to make up for it.

In the small sample size we saw, there is a lot of good and plenty that is fixable. It’s a new level of competition. He reserves the right to show he can adjust. That first full season will come this spring. We’ll circle back then and see how he fares.

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