Luiz Gohara ranked No. 77 on Keith Law’s top 100 prospect list

When the Atlanta Braves elected to trade Mallex Smith and Shae Simmons to the Seattle Mariners, the big prize of the return was young left-hander Luiz Gohara. On Tuesday, fans that advocated for the trade were likely quite pleased with Keith Law of ESPN, as the esteemed writer ranked Gohara as the No. 77 overall prospect in baseball.

As usual, Law’s work is behind the ESPN Insider paywall and we would recommend you subscribe for the full breakdown. With that said, it is an encouraging profile of the 20-year-old from Brazil and one that sheds a positive light on his future.

Within the piece, Law indicates that Gohara “could be a No. 2 starter” while praising his raw stuff. Some will undoubtedly scoff at the notion that he could be a one-inning reliever down the road, but Atlanta’s (very) deep stable of young pitching allows the team to be cautiously optimistic with an arm like Gohara and it is good to see him garnering some love in a high-profile ranking like this one.

Fellow left-hander Sean Newcomb is the only other member of the Braves organization to be recognized within the No. 61 through No. 100 range on Law’s list, and that is an interesting to say the least. This, of course, sets the stage for a potential deluge of Atlanta’s prospects between No. 1 and No. 60 or, I suppose, it could bring about some disappointment if some of the local favorites fail to crack the top 100 unexpectedly.

Stay tuned.