Braves GM: Maitan is best from Latin America in 10 years
The Atlanta Braves continued to turn their farm system into one of the best in baseball Saturday when they signed the international market's consensus top prospect Kevin Maitan for $4.25 million, a record for a Venezuelan born player.
Maitan, 16, was ranked as the No. 1 prospect available internationally by MLB Pipeline and may be the best player out of Latin America in the past decade, according to Braves general manager John Coppolella.
"From what our scouts say, (Maitan is) the best player to come out of Latin America in the last 10 years," Coppolella told David O'Brien of AJC.com. "It’s so hard to find offense in this game, as we’ve seen, and he has a chance to be a really special player."
Special assistant to the GM and international scouting chief Gordon Blakeley compared Maitan to one of Atlanta's top players of the last 20 years in Chipper Jones, thanks to his switch-hitting power, speed, and strike zone recognition.
"First of all, he’s a 6.6 runner in the 60, so he can run," Blakeley said earlier this year. "He has power from both sides of the plate, he can hit a ball out of a big-league ballpark now. He’s got good hands. He’s probably gonna end up 6-3, 215. For me, Chipper until he hurt his legs could play short, could play third, could have played center. Chipper could have done anything he wanted to do. Maitan reminds me a lot of Chipper Jones.
"Big-time power from both sides, and does it easy. Bat whip. Loves to play, loves to compete."
Along with the Jones comparison, Maitan has also been called the best international prospect since Miguel Sano by scouts and has even been labeled as a generational talent with once-in-a-lifetime potential.
(Courtesy: MLB.com)