(This continued series recaps the players who both spent time in the majors for the Braves during 2018 and are still in the organization.)
Bryse Wilson
MLB – 7 ING, 5 ER, 6 BB, 6 K, 0.1 fWAR
MiLB – 125.5 ING, 3.44 ERA, 27.2% K-rate, 6.8% BB-rate
2018: The fourth prep star pitcher the Braves took in 2016, Wilson put the world on notice after his campaign this year. Following a 2.50 ERA in Rome last season, he opened the year with a conservative promotion to Florida. I say conservative because, after their first full season in Rome, previous prep arms like Kolby Allard and Mike Soroka opened their second full season in Double-A Mississippi. At first, we thought the new regime in Atlanta wouldn’t be so aggressive with promotions. We were wrong. After a handful of dominant starts, Wilson was pushed up the ladder to Mississippi. While his ERA was near 4.00 with his new club after some early struggles, he maintained a 2.73 FIP with well over a strikeout an inning.
When August hit, room was made in the Gwinnett rotation after the trades of Lucas Sims and Matt Wisler. That set up Wilson to make it to Triple-A at the age of just 20. After three starts, including an 8-inning, 1-hit, 13 K performance against Sims and his new teammates in Louisville, Wilson was promoted to the big show. No worries – all he did was beat Chris Archer. Humorously, Wilson was likely an arm the Rays wanted from the Braves for Archer. Wilson made four more appearances split between Gwinnett and Atlanta to close out 2018. All were relief appearances and all were pretty poor.
Contract Details: Will turn 21 on December 20th. Will not be arbitration-eligible until at least after the 2021 season and won’t be a free agent until the 2024 season concludes at the earliest. Though Wilson was optioned to the minors following his late August callup, he did not use an option season because when he was recalled to open September, it was less than 20 days. He still has all three option years.
Previewing 2019: The Braves have a lot of young arms and Wilson doesn’t have the pedigree of a Kyle Wright nor the buzz of a Touki Toussaint, but he might still end up the best arm of the group. The 6’1″ stocky right-hander out of North Carolina comes at hitters with a mid-90’s fastball that has closer-to-triple-digit max when he’s amped up. But Wilson knows how to throw his heater so don’t overreact to six walks in seven innings – two of which were intentional. Wilson has the control to harness his velocity and the knowledge of how to use it for quality strikes.
His slider remains a plus pitch, developing like many people thought it would when he was selected. It has good depth and velocity at an average of about 83 mph. What really has been impressive, though, is the development of his offspeed pitch. The Braves have a number of guys still working on a real changeup – most notably Luiz Gohara – and the early scuttlebutt on Wilson was that he might max out as a closer because he didn’t have the changeup to stay a starter.
Those fears have been erased over the last few years as Wilson’s changeup has improved dramatically. He throws it with good deception in the high 80’s and it got a good deal of whiffs from hitters he saw in 2018.
What sets Wilson apart the most is probably his pitchability. Wilson is not a “get a sign and rip it” thrower. He’s a pitcher who thinks along with the hitter and manipulates his pitches as needed. He has tremendous work ethic, as evidence by his improved changeup, and shows great baseball IQ. In fact, it’s hard not to compare him with another Braves arm in Mike Soroka. Both show maturity well beyond their ages. Soroka has better control, but Wilson has more power.
2019 could be a Rookie of the Year-quality campaign for Wilson. But it might not be with the Braves. Atlanta has some tough decisions to make as we all know. There simply is not enough pitcher’s spots to utilize all the guys they have and some are likely to be dealt to improve the team elsewhere. There’s also the strong possibility that Atlanta might acquire a front-of-the-rotation arm to help lead this young staff, limiting the innings available even more. That doesn’t mean Wilson will be traded, but it’s certainly a possibility.
If not, I fully expect Wilson to be in the mix next season provided he’s healthy. In just his Age-21 season, it’s also reasonable to not just expect the Wilson of 2018, but an improved version. That’s pretty lethal considering how good he is now.
Did you know? Four players were in their Age-20 season for the Braves in 2018, including pitchers Kolby Allard, Soroka, and Wilson. At the age of 20, I did a presentation on the West Nile Virus for my Bio 102 class. So, we all did equally impressive things when we were 20, right?
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