With the Atlanta Braves draft position being settled in as of last week, it is now time to start taking a look at some of the potential targets for the team in the 2026 MLB Draft. This series will take a look at 10 players who will have some chance to be available for the team with the ninth pick. We will be skipping over the four guys who as of right now have no shot at falling that far, the top three shortstops (Roch Cholowsky, Grady Emerson, Justin Lebron) and the top pitcher (Liam Peterson).
We will continue our series with the next best shortstops out of the Top 3, we move to the first of the big bats in AJ Gracia. This group of players is based on how things look ahead of the spring, as players could see their stock or even game change significantly over the next eight months.
AJ Gracia is an outfielder at the University of Virginia who spent the past two years at Duke before following his coach over this offseason. He’s a 6’3’, 195-pound prospect that both bats and throws left-handed. In his freshman year at Duke hitting .305/.440/.559 with 14 homers and 14 doubles, as well as 48 walks to 55 strikeouts in 278 plate appearances. He followed it up by hitting .293/.449/.558 with 15 homers, 10 doubles, and 57 walks to just 36 strikeouts in 285 plate appearances. He has also added 13 steals in 15 attempts between the years.
His plus power is definitely his best tool, but he also has a chance to be an above average hitter – which is definitely possible based on the way he cut down on his strikeouts last year while continuing to walk at a high rate. He has messed with his swing mechanics a bit and did have some cold spells, but showing he could tinker with them and get right in season is definitely a plus for his feel as a hitter. Defensively he’s more of a fringy runner with a fringy arm, but he has solid instincts and could potentially stick in center – though he doesn’t really have the arm for right if he had to move to a corner position.
Gracia could be a middle of the order bat who hits for both average and power, and that’s what is going to get him drafted high. He could be an adequate defensive centerfielder or a strong defender in left, giving him potentially good value to just being solid defensively. He has all the makings of a top portion of the draft pick, and even had some success in a 19 plate appearance run in the Cape Cod League with wood bats back in 2024 to prove that he isn’t just a product of the college bats.
