The majority of the members in the Braves’ scouting department, from vice president of scouting Dana Brown on down, are on the road somewhere between 175 and 250 days a year. They go anywhere and everywhere to watch high school and college baseball games, searching for the talent to keep the organization at its peak.
This season, the Braves’ scouts saw rookies Michael Harris, Spencer Strider and Vaughn Grissom killing it at the major-league level. Harris and Strider will almost certainly finish one and two, in either order, in National League Rookie of the Year voting. All three have impacted the big-league club.
“All those things, it’s like fuel to the scouts,” Brown said over the phone. “It’s what drives us.”
The 2022 Braves feature an uncommon dynamic for a defending World Series champion: They have received heavy contributions from three rookies. Usually, you see this with rebuilding clubs or up-and-coming teams. The Braves were already a young team, and then added three rookies to the mix.
The Braves’ season turned in June, and that shift began days after they called up Harris, a five-tool center fielder.
Around that same time, Strider, who is having a historic season, entered the starting rotation.
Two-plus months later, the Braves called up Grissom out of necessity, and he immediately gave them a boost.
“What impresses me most is obviously they’re extremely talented, every single one of them that we have here,” Robbie Grossman said.
In 2020, Harris, Strider and Grissom all went to the Braves’ alternate site for the COVID year. They met and became familiar with one another. The two hitters faced Strider during live competition. The Braves might have loved those picks, but they couldn’t have known all three would be up in the majors in two years.
None of those rookies spent much time in the minor leagues. Their fast tracks are a rarity in baseball, though it’s becoming more common than it was years ago.
“It’s definitely different,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker, who managed in the minors for a long time. “I’ve had to change my outlook on things because I grew up in a world where you just didn’t do that, guys didn’t come up to the big leagues after a year in the minor leagues. It just didn’t happen.”
As a kid in the Atlanta area, Harris dreamed of playing for the Braves. A few years ago, he saw Ronald Acuña and Ozzie Albies come up together as Atlanta exited its rebuild.
Those two remind Harris of another pair: Himself and Grissom. “Our relationship is just an unbreakable bond,” Harris said. Harris noted that Albies would look back from second base and see Acuña in right field, whereas Grissom looks back from second base and sees him (Harris) in center field. Harris and Grissom might share a laugh or two. They’re like brothers.
Grissom and Harris, both drafted out of high school in 2019, are 21 years old. The Braves are generally a young team, but these two are at least a few years younger than many players with whom they share the field. They feel comfort in having one another out there.
“I can always talk with him, get him to open up a little bit,” Grissom said. “Obviously I’m a little bit more outgoing than him, but he’s like the Acuña of the deal. He’s a star.
“These guys are a little bit older, so it’s good to have someone his age where we got drafted together, we kind of lived the same life. It’s pretty cool. I’m sure it helps a lot. Just like when stuff’s going bad or good, whatever it is, he really didn’t have anyone to talk to in the dugout like that, where he can kind of just get whatever he needs off his chest.”
Among all rookies with enough at-bats to qualify, Harris ranks second in batting average (.297) and OPS (.853), fourth in home runs (19) and fourth in RBIs (64). He has also played Gold Glove-caliber defense. And throughout this season, he has been known for performing his best when the moment is biggest.
On an August night in Boston, Grissom homered over the Green Monster in his MLB debut. Filling in for Albies and Orlando Arcia at the time, he impressed at the plate while also playing solid defense.
And then there’s Strider, who this season reached 200 strikeouts faster (in terms of innings) than any other pitcher in MLB history. He is a strikeout machine, someone who can regularly hit triple digits. In one start, he recorded 16 strikeouts to set an Atlanta-era Braves record for most strikeouts in a game, doing it for a franchise that has had many dominant pitchers in its history.
On the afternoon Strider reached the 200-strikeout mark, Harris said he would put the right-hander’s stuff just under Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom. Recently, Harris expanded on that.
“If he keeps it up and keeps improving, I feel like he can be better,” Harris said of Strider. “I’m not just saying that because he’s my teammate. I’ve seen him improve ever since 2020, and he’s trending in the right direction. If he keeps that up, it’ll be scary for a lot of hitters.”
Wait, wait.
Strider would be better than deGrom or just better than he’s been this season?
“Both,” Harris said.
In baseball, times have changed. You can talk to a couple veterans, and you’ll hear this: Whereas rookies once needed to avoid stepping on any toes in the clubhouse, the days of hazing or having to earn their place are, for the most part, gone. When teams call up rookies, they’re expecting them to make some sort of immediate impact. Thus, the rest of the Braves have accepted Harris, Strider and Grissom as their own.
It probably makes it easier that all three have played important roles in this season. The Braves, who are defending champions, have had a large rookie influence for a contending team.
As the Braves enter the postseason, hoping to win another World Series, experience might be their best trait.
But their inexperience?
That’s also a boost.
“It’s the rookie guys that kind of keep us young and energized,” A.J. Minter said. “It’s fun to watch them play because you feel like the situation doesn’t get too big for them, and makes us realize, ‘Wow we are actually playing a kid’s game.’ They teach us to keep everything loose, so we learn a lot from them, as much as they learn from us.”
