Keith Law has the Braves taking Kyle Wright in his latest mock draft

If we know anything about the Braves’ plans for the 2017 draft, it is that we don’t know anything about the Braves plan for the 2017 MLB draft. Information this year has been surprisingly inconsistent and difficult to get, in no small part because the picks in front of the Braves are far from settled. Last week, it started to sound like that Royce Lewis was liked by the scouting department and the front office.

However, Lewis is liked by some other teams picking ahead of the Braves, too and there have been a host of names connected to the Braves in some form or fashion including Shane Baz, Austin Beck, Adam Haseley, and Mackenzie Gore.

One name that has been mentioned more as a pipedream is Vanderbilt’s Kyle Wright. The Braves are thought to really like Wright, but up until very recently he was a favorite to be taken 1st overall by the Twins. However, beginning with some reporting from MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis late last week and now with Keith Law’s latest mock draft, it appears some things have changed.

In this mock, Law seems to confirm that the Twins seem to favor taking Brendan McKay 1st overall which seems to make the dominoes fall in some very interesting ways. Hunter Greene is not going to get past the Padres, but the Reds love Greene too and the Padres seem to be favoring prep players like Gore or Lewis. That would leave the Rays to pick who the Padres don’t (KLaw indicated that they prep the two prep stars to Wright). That means the Braves have Wright fall in their laps at 5.

Wright is considered by many to be in the top 3 prospects in this draft, if not THE top prospect in the draft. It would certainly be a coup for the Braves if he was there, but it would likely do little to quell many fans’ desire for the Braves to use their first round pick on a bat. Wright features four pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, changeup) that have all been graded as at least above average and there seems to be room for projection and development.