The Braves have announced their Minor League rosters

While it took a little longer than one would have hoped, we now have the Braves minor league rosters officially released

While leaks by individual players over social media have been fairly plentiful, there were a lot of unanswered questions about the goings on of the minor leagues going into the season. Fortunately, each of the Braves full-season squads have released their rosters now. We will be doing full previews and reviews of each roster in the coming days, but for now....here is a quick rundown. Spoilers: all of these teams are likely among the favorites to be among the better teams in their respective leagues at first glance (although admittedly I have yet to look closely at the competition yet).

Gwinnett Braves

The headliners here are not surprises. Ozzie Albies is the top prospect in the system (especially now that Dansby has “officially” graduated from prospect status) and after raking down in AA, he will look to prove that his performance in AAA last year (which was fine but not up to Ozzie-level expectations for some). Sean Newcomb and Lucas Sims will be in the rotation with hopes of starting the year off strong after uneven campaigns last season and will be joined by Aaron Blair and Matt Wisler who will try to stay in the major league rotation discussion as well. Rio Ruiz, coming off a spring where he made a good impression, could play his way into major league playing time at third base and John Camargo had himself a strong season in AA and could be a utility man in the future if he can prove his bat will play and that the defensive miscues in Spring Training were flukes.

Mississippi Braves

The Mississippi rotation is absolutely loaded with Weigel, Soroka, Allard, Fried, and Withrow...that much we already knew and have covered already (although the preliminary reports with Biddle in the mix do not appear to be accurate). There were not a ton of surprises on the position player side with Travis Demeritte being the most intriguing prospect there. Jared James was probably the biggest surprise as he parlayed a strong first season into skipping high-A altogether and will be in the outfield for Mississippi.

Florida Fire Frogs

While we had initially projected the Fire Frogs to a prospect followers dream before the Braves opted to promote some players aggressively to AA, this roster is still loaded with talent. Luiz Gohara, Touki Toussaint, and Ricardo Sanchez will anchor the rotation and the bullpen will have high upside arms in Corbin Clouse, Devan Watts, and Chase Johnson-Mullins in tow. The Fire Frogs could have an All-World outfield on their hands if everything goes well with Ray-Patrick Didder, Braxton Davidson, and prospect wunderkind Ronald Acuna. Alex Jackson was also assigned to high-A and it is worth noting that he currently listed on the roster as an outfielder and not as a catcher, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he will not see time as a catcher. Austin Riley and Jonathan Morales both get moved up after strong first seasons of full season ball.

Rome Braves

Last but certainly not least, Rome will again be laden with talent. The rotation will again be stacked with Ian Anderson, Joey Wentz, Bryse Wilson, and Jeremy Walker leading the charge. Kyle Muller will start the season getting stretched out in extended spring before a very likely call-up to Rome. The catching staff will be exciting as Tanner Murphy will look to prove that his new batting stance will pay dividends, Lucas Herbert will be repeating the level and hope to get back on track at the plate, and Brett Cumberland will bring his switch-hitting power to the table after being drafted in 2016. Cristian Pache and Derian Cruz are among the most exciting young position prospects in the system and Randy Ventura will hope to continue to build his legend, at least among Talking Chop commenters and their lowly bloggers.