A last-minute addition to their rotation — a quick fix of signing Ervin Santana to a $14.1 million contract in spring training — cost the Braves their first round draft pick when the annual June amateur draft begins Thursday night.
But an immediate need took precedence after both Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy were lost for the season with elbow ligament tears. The Braves still have the 32nd overall pick in the supplemental round as compensation for losing Brian McCann in free agency.
That pick is only four spots down from where the Braves would have gone at No. 28.
“You may go one player down on your (preference) list,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said. “I think it’s close. We’d obviously love to have that pick. We love having draft picks. We think that’s one of the fundamental ways we like to build our club, but we also ran into a situation where we had to have starting pitching and it’s served us well.”
The draft begins Thursday at 7 p.m. with the first and second rounds and both compensatory rounds, which will air on MLB Network and will be streamed on MLB.com. The Braves also have a second round pick at No. 66 overall.
The draft will go 40 rounds over three days, picking up Friday with rounds Nos. 3-10 and Saturday with Nos. 11-40. The draft resumes on both Friday and Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Braves picked at a similar spot with their first overall pick last year — 31st overall — with good results. They were able to draft right-hander Jason Hursh out of Oklahoma State, who quickly established himself as one of the organization’s top prospects. He is pitching in Double-A Mississippi in his first full professional season, where he is 4-4 with a 3.68 ERA in 11 starts.
This is the second year in a row and third time in five years the Braves don’t have a first round pick as a result of free agent signings. Last year they sent their first round pick to the Rays for signing B.J. Upton. This year the Braves got compensation after McCann rejected their qualifying offer and signed with the Yankees.
“We’ve done some trial runs of where we think it’s going to go and where the range of players we think we could possibly get and we’re pretty excited about,” Wren said. “At least our first pick, after that we have no idea (how the picks will fall.)”
The Braves always place a high premium on pitching — they’ve taken pitchers with five of their past six top picks — and they have also put an emphasis on local talent. The Braves could combine both areas of emphasis if they land White County High School right-hander Spencer Adams, a 6-foot-3 athletic pitcher with a low-to-mid-90s fastball.
Infielder Michael Chavis from Sprayberry High in Marietta is another possibility. He’s a shortstop now who projects as a third baseman and is considered one of the better hitters in the draft, according to Baseball America.
“We’ve always been pretty good in our backyard and I don’t think this year will be any different,” Wren said. “Whether those players will land with us and fall right, I don’t know. But they’re a number of them high on our board.”
