less than a year after the Atlanta Braves took him No. 24 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft, starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep will make his Major League debut for his hometown team.
The Braves will call up the Thomasville, Georgia native on Sunday, June 8 to make a spot start in Washington against the Nationals.
“It was obviously a big surprise,” Waldrep told Mark Bowman of MLB.com. “It’s pretty cool to just be here, take all of this in, enjoy all of the firsts and just play some baseball.”
With barely 11 months of professional experience, Waldrep has made only 2 starts in AAA — one last year and one this year. In 9 starts at AA Mississippi, Waldrep has a 3.28 ERA and a 1.399 WHIP.
Waldrep will give Max Fried an extra day of rest by pushing his start to Tuesday, according to Mark Polishuk of MLB Trade Rumors. The Braves will have to make a corresponding move to get Waldrep on the 40-man roster, but Polishuk points out that Ronald Acuna Jr. or Spencer Strider could easily slide over to the 60-day injured list to make that happen.
At just 22 and with so little pro experience, there’s not much pressure on Waldrep, but if he pitches well, he could stick in the Major Leagues. The Braves have been aggressive in calling up their prospects, promoting Spencer Schwellenbach, their No. 3 prospect, last week after he started only two games above High-A.
“I set really high goals, and I’m a really high achiever,” Waldrep told Bowman. “Everything I do on a daily basis, I put forth to achieve those goals. I can’t say I had [getting to the Majors this soon] in mind, but I also can’t say it was out of the picture.”
