Braves land breakout prospect Eric Hartman after long scouting chase

Eric Hartman turned one April night in Rome into a scouting thesis for the Braves. The 19-year-old center fielder went 5-for-5 with a walk, five RBIs and three homers in a 15-6 win over Greensboro on April 22, and the performance shoved a once-overlooked draft pick into serious upper-minors conversation.

That kind of explosion is exactly why Atlanta kept pushing on Hartman in the first place. The Braves took him in the 20th round of the 2024 MLB Draft, 611th overall, then signed him for a reported $337,500 bonus on July 23, 2024, after a long chase around a college commitment to Michigan. Cody Martin initially viewed Hartman as the kind of player who might not be signable, but Alex Burritt helped keep him on the club’s radar after seeing him with Team Canada in Florida against pro competition. Martin later drove about six hours from Vancouver, Washington, to the Langley Blaze Invitational in British Columbia, and that extra work ended with a final signability conversation that helped Atlanta land him.

Hartman has rewarded that patience by moving far faster than a 20th-round pick usually does. As of early June, he owned a .954 OPS at High-A Rome and was hitting .296/.373/.581 with 13 home runs, 18 stolen bases and a 147 wRC+, the second-best mark in the Braves organization at the time. He also stole 48 bases in 89 games in his first pro season in 2025, a reminder that the speed scouts saw in him has translated from the amateur ranks to the professional game.

The power burst has changed the shape of the story. Hartman had six homers in just 14 games by the time of the April 22 outburst, and his combination of left-handed bat speed, center-field defense and 70-grade wheels has moved him beyond novelty status. Baseball America put him into its Top 100 Prospect discussion in May, and MLB.com noted that only a handful of teenage players had gone 5-for-5 with a walk at High-A or above since 2005 before Hartman joined that company.

For Atlanta, this is bigger than a hot start at Rome. Hartman was born in St. Albert, Alberta, attended Holy Trinity Academy in Okotoks, and followed a Canadian path that also included his brother Max, who played at Washington State. Now listed at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, Hartman is no longer just a long-shot signing story. He is forcing the Braves to think about how quickly a near-undrafted outfielder can move from upper-minors breakthrough to real call-up talk.