Braves send Soroka, Allard to Mississippi to start season

The Atlanta Braves surprised some with the decision to send two 19-year-old pitching prospects to Double-A Mississippi to start the 2017 season.

Right-hander Mike Soroka and southpaw Kolby Allard will both skip High-A Florida and begin the season in the Southern League.

Soroka, who turns 20 on Aug. 4, had 25 appearances (24 starts) for Low-A Rome last season. He was 9-9 with an ERA of 3.02, 130 hits allowed in 143 innings, with only 32 walks and 125 strikeouts.

Allard, who turns 20 on Aug. 13, had 11 starts in Rome and five starts in Danville (Rookie Ball). In the Appalachian League, Allard was 3-0 with an ERA of 1.32, 18 hits allowed in 27 1/3 innings, five walks and 33 strikeouts. In Rome, Allard was 5-3 with an ERA of 3.73, 54 hits allowed in 60.1 innings, 20 walks and 62 strikeouts.

Overall, Allard was 8-3 with an ERA of 2.98. He allowed 72 hits in 87 2/3 innings, 25 walks and 95 strikeouts. In Allard’s last eight games in Rome, he was 6-0 with an ERA of 1.64. He allowed 38 hits in 49 1/3 innings, with 14 walks and 51 strikeouts.

Soroka was also strong at the end. In his last 11 starts, Soroka was 8-1 with an ERA of 2.30. He allowed 63 hits in 69.2 innings, with 13 walks and 56 strikeouts.

Soroka and Allard helped the Rome Braves win the Sally League championship. Macon.com named Allard as the second-best pitching prospect on Sunday, with Soroka as the third-best pitching prospect in the Braves’ organization.

Two other members of last year’s Rome rotation are in Double-A to start this season. Most expected Max Fried to jump High-A since he’s 23 years old. Fried, who was ranked as Atlanta’s best pitching prospect by Macon.com, missed almost two full years with Tommy John surgery.

Patrick Weigel actually skipped High-A last year, as the Braves promoted him from Rome to Mississippi late last season. Weigel, who is 22, was a college draft pick out of Houston in 2015.

The fast rise for Soroka is not a shock, as he is a very mature young man. There is some surprise the Braves would push Allard, particularly considering he has just 93.2 professional innings, compared to the 177 Soroka has compiled since being drafted.

Allard was slowed by a back issue, that resulted in a procedure following the 2015 season. The Braves took it slow with Allard to start last season, which is the reason he made 16 starts on the year.

The promotions to Double-A show the faith the Braves have in both Soroka and Allard to handle a very difficult level on the minor-league ladder, not to mention their value to the organization.

The Braves have historically been very careful with high school draft picks, forcing them to pitch at least a while at every stop of the four top levels of the minor leagues.

A quick study showed that the only time the Braves allowed two high school draft picks to skip A-ball was in the late-1980s, but it was a bit different situation.

Instead of skipping High-A, top prospects (and high draft picks) Kent Mercker and Steve Avery both skipped Low-A, going straight from Rookie-ball to High-A. But that’s all we could find of a top high school pitching prospect (a draft pick) skipping any form of A-ball.

All of the other major pitching prospects (who were drafted out of high school) have gone up the minor-league ladder one step at a time.

Bruce Chen skipped High-A after a great season in Macon (Sally League) in 1997, but he was an international signee who was 21 at the time the Braves pushed him to Double-A Greenville.

Ken Dayley, a college pitcher drafted with the third overall pick in 1980, went straight to Double-A. And Mike Minor and Alex Wood, two college pitchers, did skip High-A and went straight to Mississippi.

But high school draft picks skipping High-A? It just hasn’t happened in Braves history. This is significant, and we’ll see how well Soroka and Allard do with the promotion to Double-A. Could that signal the Braves believe these two are a year away from the Major Leagues? We will see.

This story was originally published April 2, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Braves send Soroka, Allard to Mississippi to start season."