Atlanta Braves Minor League Player Review: Brandol Mezquita

Nov 28, 2022 - 7:00 PM

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Brandol Mezquita came into 2022 with little buzz around him as an older player heading into A-ball for the first time. After a month, those sentiments had shifted, though injuries and poor performances down the stretch dampened some of the early excitement.

Preseason Report Card

While we knew of Brandol Mezquita coming into 2022, there wasn’t much information floating around about him besides him being an interesting athlete. Mezquita had a solid 2021 season, but as a 20-year-old still in the Florida Complex League, it was hard to take those numbers as any proof of talent.

What we saw in 2022

Right out of the gates, Mezquita impressed with his hitting ability, driving liners from foul line to foul line with consistency. Mezquita displayed patience at the plate and played a solid center field on his way to a .333/.438/.381 slash line in April. He continued his strong production through May and into June, but towards the middle of June his BABIP luck dried up and his numbers took a tumble down to more reasonable levels. Then, an injury cost him time in July. Following this injury, Mezquita still hit fairly well, but his already mediocre power numbers took another dip and he managed just three extra base hits in his final 34 games.

2023 Outlook

Mezquita will go into 2023 looking to reignite the spark he showed early in the season, but he’s going to be a bit old at 22 in High-A and is not far from minor league free agency. He mainly needs to prove that he can consistently hit for power. While he has raw power that we’ve seen show up in games, it’s never more than a flash, and then he goes back to hitting predominantly singles.

Mezquita is a talented hitter with a knack for the barrel, but his fringy game power is holding him back, and he does carry higher strikeout rates than you would expect given his ability and the rest of his hitting profile. Mezquita will be one of the most closely-watched players next season as he is a solid talent in a system extremely thin on up-the-middle offensive players.