Austin Riley makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 3B prospects list

Austin Riley has been a bit of a polarizing figure amongst Braves fans. There is no question that he has significant power in his game, but questions surround his ability to stick at third as well as whether or not his struggles with strikeouts will prevent him from reaching his ceiling or even the majors.

The folks over at MLB Pipeline seem to at least think that he still has value as a third base prospect as they named him to their top 10 third base prospects list.

Given that there are some very real prospects on this list with Riley who was placed at #8, this is very encouraging. Austin likely played his way back on to this list with his huge second half where he put up 17 of his 20 home runs in 2016. The 2017 season will be a very telling one for Austin as he looks to start the season strong and prove that he can perform well against the best pitchers at his level before they get promoted.

Austin is likely to start the season at high-A with the Florida Fire Frogs and with a strong season start to finish and cutting down on his strikeouts a bit, he could go up these rankings and prospect rankings in general in a hurry.