Diego Tornes was just 16 years old when he signed with the Atlanta Braves in January 2025.

The raw tools are there for the Cuban outfielder, but that's what they are – raw. I hesitate to even be critical of a teenager who signed at 16 and has played just 62 professional games in two years due to injury, counting the Dominican Summer League. He's shown a real ability to hit the ball hard and has good bat speed, and he has 56 hits in those 62 games.

Tornes is a switch hitter with plenty of untapped power waiting to be harnessed. He's shown an ability to collect extra-base hits, especially from the left side.

He hit just .196 in 30 games in rookie ball, but still collected 15 RBIs on just 22 hits, thanks to four triples and four doubles. He may be dealing with a learning curve in professional baseball, but he's showing growth, improving his approach and on-base skills. I also believe that, over time, as he gets more professional reps, the strikeouts will come down too.

He has yet to tally a professional home run, but I believe the power will come. He has all the underlying tools to at least be a serviceable power hitter in the future, most notably bat speed, time and room to grow.

Tornes' skill set will allow him to be a difference maker on defense as well as offense. He has a strong arm in the outfield that could land him in a corner spot, though he has played center field as a teenager. His plus speed allows him to get to balls quickly as well as to steal bases. He has stolen 32 bases as a professional thus far, including 24 in 32 games in the DSL.

As I've said before in this series, it's odd to make comparisons and projections for a kid with such a small sample size, but Baseball America identified Tornes as the organization's best hitter and best defensive throwing arm entering 2026. With all that said, I've seen comps to Anthony Santander, but that may just be because he's a switch hitter. I don't really see that parallel.

When I first saw Tornes, he reminded me of a young Marcell Ozuna or Yasiel Puig, not so much as actual MLB comps, just physically. The more I watched and studied him, though, a more interesting a player profile became clear: a switch-hitting outfielder who hits the ball hard and is arguably both the best hitter and defender in his organization. That's Bryan Reynolds.

Simply put, Diego Tornes is a clear-cut case of "wait and see." He's electric but raw and will need time and reps stateside before his true potential can take shape, but if the Baseball America profile has any merit, Tornes could be worth the wait in a big way for the Braves organization.

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