Less than a year removed from pitching in the College World Series as a Florida Gator, right-hander [autotag]Hurston Waldrep[/autotag] is getting his shot in the major leagues.
The Southern Miss transfer who played just one dazzling season in the Orange and Blue will make his first MLB start on Sunday for the Atlanta Braves after getting the call-up from Triple-A. He’ll face the Washington Nationals at 1:35 p.m. ET.
Even with [autotag]Brandon Sproat[/autotag] at the top of the rotation, Waldrep was Florida’s most effective starter for most of the 2023 season. He went 10-3 over 19 starts with a 4.16 earned run average over 101 2/3 innings.
Those numbers earned him a Second Team All-American nod from D1Baseball and, more importantly, convinced the Braves to spend the 24th overall pick in the draft on him.
His quick ascent through the minors was almost [autotag]Wyatt Langford[/autotag]-esque. Waldrep made one start in Single-A ball, threw a season-high 12 innings in High-A and got 10 innings in Double-A before finishing the season in Triple-A. He bounced between AA and AAA this year with a fairly clear path to the majors.
An extra day of rest for Max Fried provoked the call-up, which means a move back down to the minors could come soon after, but Waldrep will be a regular arm in Atlanta sooner rather than later. His splitter is going to generate some of the best swing-and-miss rates in the country.
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