Emperors Break Camp with Six of Atlanta’s Top 30 Prospects

ROME, GA – The Atlanta Braves, in conjunction with High-A Affiliate Rome, today announced the Break Camp roster for Manager Cody Gabella and his staff ahead of Opening Day.

Pitching Coach Mike Steed’s rotation is headlined by some of the best young arms in the Braves system in Spencer Schwellenbach (MLB.com’s no.3 prospect), Owen Murphy (no.5 prospect), Drue Hackenberg (no.10 prospect), and Lucas Braun (no.24 prospect). A revamped infield is led by newcomers Sabin Ceballos (no.18 prospect) and Ambioris Tavarez (no.21 prospect) who were both a part of MLB’s Spring Breakout Showcase last month. All told, Rome’s 30-man roster consists of 17 returners and 13 transplants.

Catchers (3): Nick Clarno, Dawson Dimon, Adam Zebrowski

Adam Zebrowski, Rome’s middle-of-the-order power threat from a year ago, is back for 2024. Zebrowski smashed 13 homeruns and logged significant innings behind the plate (547.0) as an understudy to Drake Baldwin in ’23. Clarno pinballed between Single-A Augusta and Double-A Mississippi last year but spent the majority of his time (64 starts) east of the Savannah River. As for Dawson Dimon, the Tampa Bay selection from 2018 has six at-bats worth of Triple-A service time from back in 2022 but was a GreenJacket for all 170 of his at-bats last year.

Infielders (6): Carlos Arroyo, Sabin Ceballos, EJ Exposito, Justin Janas, Ambioris Tavarez, Nick Ward

Rome returns just one infielder from 2023, that being first baseman Justin Janas who slashed .310/.394/.412 before getting the call-up to Rome in mid-July. He’ll presumably be opposite that of Sabin Ceballos at third on Opening Day. The Oregon product Ceballos has just one year of Pac-12 baseball and 40 professional at-bats under his cap but clocks in as the organization’s 18^th ranked prospect, and aside from David McCabe, is the highest rated corner infielder in the Top 30. Up the middle, another prospect, Ambioris Tavarez, starts the year in Rome and will work the second base bag with E.J. Exposito and Nick Ward. Exposito is a Brooklyn native and was a 16^th round pick by Atlanta in ’22. The 28-year-old Ward played against Rome in ’23 as a member of the Jersey Shore BlueClaws and reached Double-A Reading before the season’s close. Carlos Arroyo last appeared in a Venados de Mazatlan jersey, a Mexican Pacific League team based in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Outfielders (5): Jeremy Celedonio, Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., Stephen Paolini, Ethan Workinger, Bryson Worrell

While the infield is full of fresh leather, the outfield returns four familiar faces in 2024. Kilpatrick, Paolini, Workinger, and Worrell all return to the city where they wrapped up 2023. No one in the South Atlantic League played more innings (1,001.1) than Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. last year, all coming in center field. A former fifth-round pick in 2019, the lefty bat of Paolini put on ten pounds of muscle in the off-season and looks primed for a breakout in ’24. Workinger sported an .887 OPS in Augusta with 11 homers and 10 doubles to his credit before a late-June call-up brought him to the Emperor City. Worrell is another former GreenJacket who made it as high as Double-A Mississippi and benefitted from 10 at-bats with the M-Braves. The lone greenhorn in the outfield is Celedonio who paced the Carolina league in homeruns last year with 17 on the season.

RH Pitchers (15): Ryan Bourassa, Lucas Braun, Chad Bryant, Rob Griswold, Drue Hackenberg, Landon Harper, Jared Johnson, Elison Joseph, Daniel Martinez, Rolddy Munoz, Owen Murphy, Shay Schanaman, Spencer Schwellenbach, Tyree Thompson, Cory Wall

LH Pitchers (1): Samuel Strickland

Atlanta’s top five prospects and seven of the top 10 prospects are right-handed pitchers. Rome will have three in its rotation to begin 2024. Hackenberg, Murphy, and Schwellenbach will anchor most series with Braun and Martinez picking up games four and five. Out of the pen, Gabella has his pick of hard throwing righties. Bourassa, Bryant, Harper, Joseph, and Wall will all make their High-A debuts at some point. The bullpen welcomes back Johnson, Munoz, Schanaman and Thompson. Strickland and Griswold will give opposing lineups a different look, Strickland from the left side and Griswold from down under.

Gabella and his staff will go to battle with this group for the first time on Friday, April 5^th. First pitch for Opening Day is scheduled for 7:00 pm EDT against the defending World Series Champion Texas Rangers’ High-A affiliate, the Hickory Crawdads.