The Braves have another top-100 prospect.
Baseball America moved Braves catching prospect Shea Langeliers into its top 100 in its latest update. A spot opened when Marlins shortstop Jazz Chisholm graduated. Langeliers joins Braves outfielders Cristian Pache and Drew Waters in the top 100.
Langeliers, 23, was the ninth overall pick in the 2019 draft. The division-champion Braves were drafting in the top 10 because they failed to sign pitcher Carter Stewart in the previous draft. Their compensation became Langeliers, who’s emerged as one of the sport’s better backstop prospects.
Currently stationed in Double-A Mississippi, Langeliers is 6-for-26 (.231) with three homers and five RBIs to start the season. That includes a two-homer, four-RBI performance on May 8.
The Baylor product was considered advanced when he entered the system, but the pandemic ceasing minor-league baseball games prevented the team from seeing his growth in real action. Langeliers is lauded for his defense and ability to thrown out baserunners.
Like William Contreras, the Braves’ other key catching prospect who’s handled daily duties in the majors due to injuries to others, Langeliers is a superb athlete. Catching coach Sal Fasano believes that’s the direction MLB is going with its backstops and the Braves are ahead of the curve.
“That’s the nice part of what we’re starting to draft and develop now,” Fasano told The AJC recently. “We have Contreras, and actually (Alex) Jackson was a tremendous athlete, too. Offensively, I think he doesn’t probably have as much upside as William does. We have Shea Langeliers as a tremendous athlete. That’s what we’re trying to develop here, guys who are – you hate to say interchangeable parts – but once you have an athlete, it’s a lot easier to teach the mechanics. And once you teach the mechanics, it’s easier for them to master it. Once they progress and get older, they start to add their own style to it. That’s what an athlete can do for you.”
With Contreras, the bat was always there. It was a matter of grooming him defensively and seeing the strides he makes on that end. Langeliers is the opposite: His offensive development will determine how quickly he reaches the majors. If he develops accordingly, Baseball America projects him as a potential “first-division regular.”
Langeliers has had moments, even going back to Baylor, where he showed legitimate offensive upside. Whether he harnesses that consistently will make or break his ceiling as a major leaguer, but his defense and how he manages pitchers alone should make him a long-time big leaguer.
In an age when any organization would be thrilled to have one young, promising catcher, the Braves have at least two in Langeliers and Contreras. It’s an enviable position and, if the players progress as hoped, could reward the franchise with a dynamic complementary duo in the nearer future.
