Excited Hurston Waldrep looking to make impact with Braves this year
The Braves landed one of the best pitchers in the first round of the draft last year, selecting the highly touted Hurston Waldrep out of Florida, and it didn’t take long for him to leave a lasting impression on the entire organization
In his first taste of professional ball, Waldrep turned heads every time he toed the rubber, recording a 1.53 ERA with a silly 12.6 K/9. He began the year with the Low-A Augusta Green Jackets, and by the end of the season, he tossed four shutout innings for the AAA Gwinnett Stripers in his final start of 2023. Now, at 22-years-old, Waldrep is thrilled about his first opportunity to be a part of major-league Spring Training and compete for the final spot in the rotation.
“It’s baseball,” Hurston Waldrep said when asked about the Braves competition for the fifth spot in the rotation. “You can’t ever guarantee anything. You can’t ever say anything is out of reach, so it’s just doing what you gotta do.”
Typically, even the top draft picks can expect to spend at least a few years in the minors, but Hurston Waldrep is a unique talent, featuring a high-90s fastball and a filthy splitter that was arguably the nastiest pitch in all of college baseball last season. The Braves also don’t operate like most organizations when it comes to their young talent, eagerly pushing there young stars through the ranks if they deem them ready, as they did with Spencer Strider, Michael Harris II, AJ Smith-Shawver, and plenty of others.
“Yeah, absolutely, you see this organization, they like moving guys fast, and obviously last year everything moved really fast, and so seeing what they’ve done in the past and realizing there is always the chance for any spot,” Waldrep said.
