Let\u2019s catch up on some of the news that you may have missed this week. <\/p>\n
Among the Braves contingent in the Arizona Fall League is top shortstop prospect Tate Southisene<\/a>, Atlanta\u2019s first-round pick in 2025, and he\u2019s showing why he\u2019s in the team\u2019s \u201cbig three\u201d prospects along with outfielder Eric Hartman<\/a> and lefty pitcher Cam Caminiti<\/a>. <\/p>\n Playing for Glendale, Southisene\u2019s hitting .261\/.393\/.391 with a double, a triple, and six runs scored in just seven games. Getting a late start as he was waiting to be cleared from the broken wrist he suffered in his very first Double-A game this summer, he didn\u2019t debut until the second week of the Desert Dogs schedule but is making up for lost time, cementing the mechanical changes he implemented after a rough post-draft debut last year. <\/p>\n \u201cComing in, I was a big handsy guy, big stride, a lot of moving pieces,\u201d Southisene told MLB Pipeline<\/a> from Glendale. \u201cI was just able to tone those down and be able to look in the zone. For me, when my swing was a little sharper, it was easier for me to recognize spin, see the pitch in the right zone, see the pitch where I needed it to be, so cleaning up the swings also cleaned up my approach.\u201d<\/p>\n Joining Southisene in the Desert Dogs lineup from the Braves system is Owen Carey<\/a>, who is 7-17 with more walks (five) than strikeouts (three) in his seven games for Glendale, as well as Isaiah Drake<\/a>, who has a .499 OPS through ten games so far. Both outfielders are trying to make up for lost time due to injury, with Carey missing nearly two months in Double-A with a heel injury and Drake being sidelined with a sprained thumb that limited him to just 68 games this season. <\/p>\n On the pitching side, while Briggs McKenzie<\/a> has been trying to shake off the rust from his midseason injury, putting up a 5.79 ERA through his first four starts, reliever Tyler LaPorte<\/a> has allowed three hits and just one unearned run through his first 5.1 innings. Not bad for the AFL\u2019s oldest player, at the virtually ancient age of\u202629. Fellow Braves reliever Owen Hackman<\/a> has acquitted himself well in the dry air of the Arizona desert, allowing just one earned run in his first eight innings of relief work while striking out four. <\/p>\n (And on McKenzie: Yeah the ERA\u2019s not great, but he did pitch five scoreless innings with four strikeouts<\/a> in one of those four starts.)<\/p>\n Today is exactly two years to the day from the hire of Tim Hyers<\/a>, with Atlanta\u2019s offense putting up a .246\/.315\/.404 line, a 99 wRC+, in his two years at the helm. <\/p>\n He also signed a two-year deal at the time, so as of today, the Braves technically don\u2019t have a hitting coach (unless there was a different end date in the contract, to cover a potential World Series run.)<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of frustration among the fanbase with the performance of Hyers, with many thinking that the offense\u2019s lack of improvement should fall on his feet. And it\u2019s true that the Braves have immensely struggled to get on base, with an 8.5% walk rate in his tenure (16th in that span); Alex Anthopoulos pointed out in his end-of-season press conference<\/a> that the lack of on-base was one of the reasons for the offense\u2019s lack of reliability. <\/p>\n \u201cWe had a good year offensively, just streaky, right? Very, very streaky across the board. […] \u200aWe\u2019re top 10 in the majors in runs, top 10 in the majors in average, top 10 in the majors in slug. I think we\u2019re 11th in strikeout rate in the major leagues. Our on-base was not good, so you\u2019d like to get that better.\u201d <\/p>\n But when you look at the track record of Hyers, his first season was much better than his second, as Anthopoulos admitted. \u200a\u201cSecond half of last year, I think we were top five in on-base, so we showed the ability to do that. And then in the playoffs, we had more walks than any playoff team. We had 30 walks in the playoffs. We were second in on-base in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s right; Atlanta\u2019s .327 on-base percentage in the 2nd half of 2025 was a top-five mark. How much of that was personnel, with both Jurickson Profar<\/a> (15.3% walk rate) and a healthy Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a>(17.8% BB) in the lineup on an everyday basis? <\/p>\n And in October, Atlanta drew 30 walks in just seven games, with their 11.6% walk rate being the best of all postseason teams (entering the start of the World Series; Milwaukee is 2nd at 11.2%). <\/p>\n Is that enough to give Hyers a one-year extension, especially if they reinforce the lineup with Profar and\/or some other high-on-base bat? As we\u2019ve discussed a few times by this point<\/a>, reinforcing a high-slug offense with multiple on-base threats is a better strategy<\/a> than attempting to convert your sluggers into high-walk hitters. <\/p>\n Former Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki<\/a>, who hit 26 home runs and also ran a 12.8% walk rate last year, might be the best option on the market, but former Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena<\/a> (26 homers, 10.1% BB) and even Suzuki\u2019s running mate Ian Happ<\/a> (24 homers, 12.7% walk rate) could also fill that same role for Atlanta. <\/p>\n If the Braves had one of those three bats in left field, Jurickson Profar at designated hitter, and a healthy Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. putting up his usual 11.9% walk rate with 40-homer potential, are we rethinking the job security of Tim Hyers? <\/p>\n I\u2019m hoping the Braves will make an announcement sometime soon. <\/p>\n