ATLANTA — New Atlanta Braves pitching prospect Raudy Reyes won’t turn 17 until August and has a fastball that’s touched 102 mph. Even in this velocity-obsessed era in baseball, when triple-digit heaters aren’t the rarity they were years ago, topping 100 mph at age 16 remains stunning.
“He’s a unicorn, there’s no other way to shape that,” said Jonathan Cruz, Braves director of Latin American scouting.
Cruz noted that Reyes is so young he barely made it under a Sept. 1 eligibility date for this year’s signing period. The youngest top-tier international pitching prospect available in this year’s signing period is also the hardest-throwing 16-year-old in this or any other year. The Braves signed Reyes for $1.8 million, an unusually high price for such a young pitcher in the international amateur field, but one the team felt was justified.
The Braves aren’t certain what the ceiling is for the 6-foot-4 Dominican, but they believe he’ll become a formidable pitcher as long as he stays healthy.
“Because the floor is there, right?” Cruz said, not bothering to downplay Reyes’ potential because, as he put it, “102 is 102 anywhere, at any level.”
#Braves will be careful with development of 16-yr-old flamethrower Raudy Reyes, “a unicorn” in their view, already topping 100 mph. Their international scouting director said Reyes’ goal is to be pitching in majors by age 19. They’ll train him as a starter for forseeable future.
— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) January 17, 2025
The Braves like his upside for two reasons: He’s so young — “in the middle of puberty,” Cruz said — and hasn’t honed secondary pitches. Reyes didn’t need to while facing hitters who flailed at those jaw-dropping fastballs. For the record, Reyes has a slider and a changeup, both in the early developmental stages.
“Obviously he didn’t have to work with putting his secondary pitches where he wanted to; he just had to throw fastballs,” Cruz said. “So we’re going to elevate his game to another kind of facet here when he reports with us.”
He added, “We’re pretty good with pitching. We’ve all seen what (Braves director of pitching development) Paul Davis and his staff do with pitching. They’re really, really good at what they do. Raudy is not a herky-jerky guy either. He’s pretty under control with (his delivery).”
Reyes didn’t appear on most top-20 or top-30 international prospects lists entering the signing period, only because he grew so much and added so much velocity in the past year. Most publications and services that compile such rankings begin formulating them more than a year in advance and aren’t accustomed to late-emerging prospects like Reyes, who drew increased attention from multiple organizations last summer as his velocity kept increasing.
“We saw Raudy when he was throwing 89, 91,” Cruz said. “At one point I remember he was like 93, 94, and he was still like, interesting, but there’s other pitchers that had the same kind of stuff. And middle-late of this last year, 2024, Raudy was throwing in a semi-pro league here in the Dominican. And you start seeing the velo trend up and up. He works comfortably at 95 to 98, and you see him going up to 100. And later in the year you saw him hit 101, and then finally you saw him hit 102, and you were like, all right, well, this is a 7-tool now (near the top of the scouting scale), it’s undeniable.
“Obviously, you don’t like to scout (only) with a radar gun. But the last (international prospect) that was close was Jarlin Susana.”
Susana, the top pitcher in the 2022 international class, was among five San Diego Padres prospects sent with Luke Voit to the Washington Nationals in a 2022 trade for Juan Soto.
“That was my closest comp, and this kid (Reyes) just kept going past Susana,” Cruz said. “So that’s probably why there’s so much buzz behind the name.”
Reyes will be 16 for his rookie-ball season, and the Braves will be careful with his workload. The organization wants to help Reyes develop without setbacks.
“One hundred percent,” Cruz said. “I think we even saw it at the big-league level with (Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul) Skenes. He was throwing a no-hitter or perfect game at one point and got pulled. There’s going to have to be some care (with Reyes). He has a very intricate program.”
While it’s easy to envision Reyes as a dominant major-league closer, Cruz said the Braves will develop him as a starter, at least for the foreseeable future.
“(Starting) is the best way to develop experience in young pitchers,” Cruz said, adding that Reyes told him his goal is to pitch in the majors by age 19. “So he’s going to get innings. He has an idea of command, surprisingly enough. We’ve just got to get the control there for him to explore those ideas — he knows when he wants to go in, he knows when he wants to go out, up in the zone, use the secondary.”
Just one other question for Cruz: The “middle of puberty”? Reyes is 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, with a more muscular physique than most major-league pitchers a decade or two older.
Cruz laughed and said, “Yeah, he’s an intimidating young man, for sure. I stand next to him and I look up and he’s got a huge head and he’s like (massive). But you hear him talk and he sounds his age. I don’t know if, like, he’ll get bullied for it early on.”
He laughed at that notion.
“I don’t think anyone wants to bully a guy like that,” Cruz added. “He’s a big dude.”
Braves think Tornes can be five-tool center fielder
While Reyes is the Braves’ most talked-about international signee this week, their highest-rated was Diego Tornes, a 16-year-old Cuban outfielder who signed for $2.5 million. He was ranked fifth by FanGraphs and 15th by MLB.com among this year’s class, and like Reyes, Tornes made major strides since the Braves first scouted him.
The switch hitter went from being a player most teams including the Braves projected as a good hitter — both for average and power — but who’d be limited defensively, to a player whom the Braves saw develop into a speedy, athletic type they now think can become a big-league center fielder and legitimate five-tool player.
Cruz said a lot of teams probably gave up on Tornes a couple of years ago and focused on others. The Braves stayed with the Cuban and saw a change in his maturity, work habits and physique. He’s nearly 6-foot-2 and 205, and won’t turn 17 until July, making him another of the youngest players in this international class.
“He kind of burst into the (scene) a little late,” Cruz said. “Obviously teams are scouting kids young when they can, building history. With Diego, we were at the field scratching our heads about whether he was going to be a left fielder, a DH or a first baseman. He had power, but obviously, at such a young age you kind of want a little bit more. So that’s always what I left with my first couple of months scouting Diego.
“And then fast-forward maybe two or three months. The area scout called me, Reymond Nunez, and I showed up early to the field, and saw Diego with a sledgehammer, slamming at big truck tires and just sweating all over his body. And I was looking from afar at the work ethic, and started dreaming of, all right, this guy’s putting in the work. Don’t give up on this kid yet.”
After thoroughly enjoying the past four seasons in Atlanta, Charlie Morton hoped to finish his career with the Braves. But after the 41-year-old decided early in the offseason that he’d like to keep pitching and not retire, there was no offer from the Braves.
Morton drew interest from several teams and signed a one-year, $15 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles on Jan. 8. With less than four weeks before spring training, the Braves still haven’t made any significant additions this winter. They lost two starting pitchers, Morton and Max Fried, to free agency.
It sounded as if Morton didn’t know exactly how to feel about how things ended with the Braves.
“I consider Alex (Anthopoulos) a friend, and I don’t know what they’re going through,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re up against or what their goals are in terms of their roster. And I don’t take anything personally. I’ll always care about everyone in that clubhouse and all the guys that I spent the last four years with.”
Morton added, “I get the business side of things and there’s things that can’t be said and divulged, and people would never say to me because it’s not their obligation to do that. I don’t have a right, and I don’t need to know what happened. I think going into the offseason, having been a Brave for the past four years and having gone through a lot with the guys in the clubhouse and in the top-to-bottom organization, you feel like you belong. You feel like you’re part of a larger family.”
He earned $75 million over four seasons with the Braves and made at least 30 starts in each, posting a 45-34 record and 3.87 ERA in that span while totaling 771 strikeouts in 686 1/3 innings. Morton struggled at times in 2024, going 8-10 with a 4.19 ERA in 30 starts, but the curveball artist still had 167 strikeouts in 165 1/3 innings.
“There’s just so many people there that have meant a lot to me and my family, that have made the past four years extremely special,” said Morton, a key member of the Braves’ 2021 World Series championship team.
The Orioles were appealing because they are a contender and because they train in Sarasota, Florida, which will allow Morton to commute daily to spring training as he did with the Braves from his home in Bradenton. He and his wife, Cindy, have four young children.
“All I know is that nothing manifested with the Braves,” Morton said. “And I’ve been in the game long enough to know that there are myriad factors that could contribute to something like that. But when (agents B.B. Abbott and Andrew Lowenthal) let me know that there were a couple other teams interested, and one of them was the Orioles, Cindy and I started talking about it. The Orioles just started to make more and more sense.
“I wish nothing but the best for the guys over there (Braves). I’ll miss them. I’ll cherish the times we had and everything, the ups and downs. But I think that we’re landing in a really good spot.”
(Top photo of Charlie Morton: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
