Atlanta signed Joseph out of the Dominican Republic as part of their 2019 international signing class. As he signed at the age of 19, Joseph was one of the oldest players to put pen to paper in his respective class.
What were the 2025 expectations?
When it comes to “risk versus reward” type players in Atlanta’s system, Joseph is the in the upper tier of that group of prospects.
When he’s on, Joseph is in the top-5 arms Atlanta has in the minor leagues. With a fastball that regularly touches the upper-90’s and a slider with a ridiculous amount of spin that tortures right-handed hitters, there’s plenty to like about Joseph as a potential late-inning reliever.
The downside is that when he’s not on, god only knows where the ball is going when it leaves his hand. In 2023, Joseph posted a walk rate of 14.4%, which he managed to reduce to 12.6% which is better, but still extremely high. The hope for 2025 is that the walk rate would continue to trend down.
Joseph posted an ERA of 2.04 across two levels in 2024, wrapping up his year with double-A Mississippi where he posted a 1.33 ERA in 20.1 innings pitched. With those numbers in mind, expectations were very high for Joseph coming into 2025 — with some pundits even suggesting the hard-throwing righty could have ended up in Atlanta at some point.
While the expectations for Joseph were high coming into the year, his strikeout and walk rates both worsened in 2025, causing him to stall out at double-A Columbus for the year.
In 39.2 innings pitched, Joseph struck out a whopping 12.93 batters per nine innings, but also saw his strikeout rate drop by nearly four full points from 34.1% in 2024, to 30.5% in 2025. The biggest blemish on his record, is that his walk rate skyrocketed in 2025, increasing to a staggering 21.9%.
Overall, Joseph posted a 4.31 ERA, but his FIP was much better at 3.64, suggesting he was the victim of some bad luck from time to time.
Simply put, for Joseph to succeed, he has got to focus all of his attention on harboring some command. He doesn’t have to be Maddux-level good when it comes to hitting his spots, but any type of improvement on locating his pitches could put him a hair away from the big leagues.
Atlanta has a desperate need for bullpen arms and there’s a clear path to playing time for Joseph if he’s able to correct the one big flaw in his game.
While it’s unlikely Joseph returns to double-A for a third consecutive year, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the organization wants to see significant change in his command before putting him a step below the big leagues. The goal for Joseph in 2026 should be to get to triple-A and perhaps even Atlanta by season’s end.
