baseballamerica
Following the 2026 MLB Draft, were taking a quick look at each individual draft class.
Below you can find our theme of the draft, favorite selections, picks to move quickly to the majors and most exciting tools.
You can see all 30 draft reviews here.
You can also see our full draft tracker with scouting reports here.
The Theme: Safety & Security Early, Big Upside Late.
The Braves drafted a pair of college outfielders with spring performance early, then bought a number of upside high school players in the middle and late rounds who are riskier but come with big upside.
Favorite Pick: RHP Jensen Hirschkorn Hirschkorn has an elite starting pitcher profile, with size, stuff, athleticism and strikes.
He also turned in one of the most dominant performances scouts have seen at the 2025 Area Code Games.
He faced nine batters at the event while pitching for the Northern California-based As team and struck out all nine on swinging strikes while flashing a loud three-pitch mix.
Hirschkorn has a hyper-projectable 6-foot-7, 205-pound frame with a ton of space to fill out.
He works down the mound with a smooth, controlled delivery and throws from a three-quarters arm slot he repeats well.
He has been up to 96 mph with his fastball, and in abbreviated starts in the 2025 summer he sat around 93 mph.
In the spring, after a full basketball season, Hirschkorn tended to pitch in the 90-93 mph range, but he has the arm speed and physical projection for regular plus velocity in the near future.
Hirschkorn has thrown both a four-seam and two-seam fastball, and primarily complements his fastballs with a slider and changeup.
Both pitches have flashed plus.
His slider is a consistent swing-and-miss weapon against righthanded batters with 10-to-4 shape, spin rates in the 2,200-2,400 rpm range and solid biting action.
His upper-80s changeup is already a miss pitch against lefties and good enough to mix in versus righties as well.
Hirschkorn has toyed with a cutter, but its not a key piece of his arsenal.
He is committed to LSU but is a top-two-rounds talent in the draft.
Favorite Day 2 Pick: RHP Tyson Grulkowski Grulkowski is a 6-foot-5, 225-pound righthander who attacks hitters from a tricky low arm slot.
Hes trended in the right direction with his fastball and throughout the 2025 circuit pitched in the low 90s and touched 95.
Grulkowski has a mid-to-upper-70s breaking ball that blends between a soft slider and more of a slurvy curveball, but he has tremendous feel to spin the pitch and create depth.
He gets spin rates in the 2,700-2,900 rpm range and should have enough movement to develop a plus breaking ball with more power.
He also throws a mid-80s changeup with solid tumble.
Grulkowski is committed to South Florida.
Biggest Gamble: OF Carter Beck.
Beck has a solid collegiate track record, with impressive underlying batted ball data to back it up, but he has also not played the best competition just yet.
He didnt play in an elite summer wood bat league or Power Four college conference, so there could be some questions about how his hitting approach translates to pro ball.
He also needs to improve defensively to stick in center field.
Quickest To The Majors: OF AJ Gracia.
Gracia has the sort of offensive polish that should allow him to move quickly.
He was a reliable three-year producer with Duke and Virginia, he understands the strike zone, makes a ton of contact and physically looks the part of a big leaguer right now.
He should move to a corner quickly in pro ball, where his defensive expectations shouldnt be too significant.
Let him focus on mashing.
Most Exciting Tool: RHP Kaiden McCarthys athleticism.
McCarthy is a dynamic mover on the mound and scouts raved about his athletic engine this spring.
His arm works quickly and he has already been up to 99 mph with tremendous feel to spin the ball.
Getting a cold-weather arm like this into a pitching development factory could be a lot of fun.
Atlanta Braves 2026 MLB Draft Results 1.9 AJ Gracia, OF, Virginia (14) PPI.26 Carter Beck, OF, Indiana State (68) 2.48 Kaiden McCarthy, RHP, Vermont Academy (75) 3.84 Jensen Hirschkorn, RHP, Kingsburg HS (43) 4.112 Cole Dennis, RHP, Bishop Snyder HS (355) 5.144 Wil Libbert, LHP, Mississippi (352) 6.173 Tyson Grulkowski, RHP, Muskego HS (216) 7.202 Jack Brenner, C, Fond du Lac HS (209) 8.232 Jacob Jarrell, C, Clemson (NR) 9.262 Parker Brosius, OF, Georgia Tech (NR) 10.292 Ben Zeigler-Namoa, 1B, Hawaii (NR) 11.322 Ryne Barker, 3B, Casteel HS (322) 12.352 Dominic Kibler, C, Wisconsin-Milwaukee (NR) 13.382 Cole Dorland, RHP, Walnut Grove SS (NR) 14.412 Brady Hamilton, RHP, Wichita State (NR) 15.442 Caleb Klein, OF, Southeast Missouri St U (411) 16.472 Dalton Harper, C, Niagara County CC (NR) 17.502 John Damozonio, RHP, Saint Marys (NR) 18.532 Ethan Stade, LHP, Bowling Green State (NR) 19.562 Austin Fawley, C, Mississippi (498) 20.592 Nile Adcock, RHP, Kentucky (NR) The post Atlanta Braves 2026 MLB Draft Review appeared first on College Baseball, MLB Draft, Prospects - Baseball America .