MLB Rumors: Marmol’s Cardinals excuses, Braves prospect buzz, huge Cubs return

MLB rumors: Braves top prospects getting huge early-season buzz

Despite a litany of injuries to the likes of Max Fried, Michael Harris II, Travis d’Arnaud and Orlando Arcia, the Atlanta Braves have still been one of baseball’s best. The club erased a four-game losing streak behind a near no-hitter from young Spencer Strider against the Marlins to win 11-0 and move to 15-8 on the year overall.

One of the remarkable thing about the Braves in the past few years, though, is that they have seemingly been able to call up one star after another. Strider and Harris were the two leaders in the NL Rookie of the Year race in 2022, despite Harris being called up straight from Double-A. The same is true of Vaughn Grissom, who shined upon his arrival too.

Though trades for Matt Olson and Sean Murphy have depleted the Braves’ farm system somewhat, though, Alex Anthopolous is replenishing it, as evidenced by the buzz that the team’s top two draft picks from 2022 are performing in Low-A ball for the Augusta Green Jackets.

Owen Murphy, who was the 20th overall pick last year, is just 19 years old but is already showing nice stuff on the mound in Single-A. The club’s No. 2-ranked prospect has struck out 11 batters and allowed just four hits over 7.1 innings of work to start his year.

Meanwhile, Atlanta also took JR Ritchie with the 35th pick, another player just out of high school, and he’s been equally impressive alongside Murphy. He recently made his season debut and struck out seven of the nine batters he faced.

Obviously, it’s an absurdly small sample size for a pair of 19-year-old right-handed pitchers, but the early returns should have Braves fans excited that the organization looks like it might already be developing another pair of young stars to bring more success for the club in the future.