Baseball fans may come to know Blake Burkhalter as the answer to a trivia question: Who did the Braves get as compensation for losing franchise icon Freddie Freeman to free agency?
The Braves received the 76th pick in this year’s MLB draft for Freeman’s signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in March and used the compensatory pick after midnight Sunday to select Burkhalter, a right-handed pitcher from Auburn.
Burkhalter was exclusively a relief pitcher during his three college seasons, but the Braves intend to have him begin his minor-league career as a starter.
“Worst come to worst, we know we got a big-time end-of-game bullpen guy,” Braves vice president of scouting Dana Brown said, “but we have some plans to try to see if this guy can start. Maybe we can kind of flip this into a (Spencer) Strider-type pick where you take this college guy that doesn’t have a ton of innings but has really good stuff. He’s been up to 98 (mph in fastball velocity) with a really hard cutter.
“Sometimes you have to get strategic, and it could turn into something big.”
Burkhalter is a Dothan, Ala., native who grew up as a Braves fan. His pitching coach at Auburn was Braves Hall of Fame pitcher Tim Hudson, who “raved about him,” Brown said.
After struggling with command in his first two seasons at Auburn, Burkhalter emerged this year as a junior into one of college baseball’s top closers. He led the SEC in saves with 16 and helped the Tigers reach the College World Series. He had a 4-2 record with a 3.69 ERA and 71 strikeouts (just seven walks) in 46-1/3 innings.
If he’d pitched enough innings to qualify, he would have led the SEC in strikeouts per nine innings (13.8) and strikeouts-to-walks ratio (10.14 to 1).
Burkhalter apparently will embrace the trivia question that might follow him through the Braves organization, telling his hometown newspaper, the Dothan Eagle, upon being drafted by Atlanta: “I wouldn’t have been here without Freddie Freeman, I guess.”
The six-foot, 204-pound Burkhalter was the Braves’ fourth selection on the opening night of the draft, which continues through Tuesday. The Braves used their first three picks on hard-throwing high school pitchers: Owen Murphy of Riverside, Ill., in the first round (No. 20 overall), JR Ritchie of Bainbridge Island, Wash., with a competitive-balance-round pick (No. 35 overall) that was acquired from Kansas City last week and Cole Phillips of Boerne, Texas, in the second round (No. 57 overall). All three are right-handers.
Phillips, described by Brown as a “big Texas fireballer,” is currently in the early stages of rehabbing from “Tommy John” elbow surgery, which he underwent in April.
“The plan all along was to try to get upside,” Brown said. “We took some young guys that we really feel good about. Not only with their fastballs, but these guys have secondary stuff and they’re strike throwers. We felt good about the plan of taking upside that could one day impact the major-league team.”
The Braves’ draft strategy was shaped in part by the team’s decision to take on an additional $2.2 million in bonus-pool allocation by acquiring the 35th pick in a trade for former top outfield prospect Drew Waters and two other minor leaguers.
“It’s beautiful that (Braves chairman) Terry McGuirk and (general manager) Alex (Anthopoulos) have committed to allowing us to get the best players we can for this organization,” Brown said, “and they understand that you have to build it from the minor leagues up.
“Getting the extra money for the picks and giving us an opportunity to add these young, upcoming guys that we think could be anchors in the rotation -- it’s really an exciting part of what we do.”
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