2026 Dynasty Baseball Prospects: Daily Write-Up Series #135 Hurston Waldrep

We’re 128 days from Opening Day, and the next arm in my 2026 Dynasty Baseball Prospects: Daily Write-Up series comes with an important caveat. Full disclosure: these rankings are from my August update, before Hurston Waldrep impressed in his second MLB stint. Coming in at #135 is Waldrep, a right-hander in the Atlanta Braves’ system whose fastball–splitter foundation gives him one of the most distinct arsenals in the upper minors.

The Triple-A results were streaky, a mix of outings that said “future rotation piece” and others that reminded you the command is still a work in progress. But once he returned to Atlanta late in the year, the zone rate ticked up, the strikeouts held, and he finally flashed the version of Waldrep the Braves believed could move fast. With ground-ball traits, real bat-miss ability, and the Braves’ track record of developing arms, Waldrep enters 2026 as a volatile but legitimately exciting mid-rotation upside play.

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Daily Baseball Write-Up Series #135 Hurston Waldrep

Hurston Waldrep is the latest Braves developmental success story. The results in Triple-A have been a blend of “yep, that plays” and “not quite yet,” but the ingredients for a mid-rotation starter are here. The fastball/splitter combo drives a ground-ball machine, the strikeouts are real, and when he’s around the zone, he looks every bit the part. The question, still, is how often he’s around the zone.

Waldrep’s pitch mix is built around a true bat-melting splitter that drives both whiffs and lousy contact. A 56.0% ground-ball rate and a tidy 0.79 HR/9 across 91.2 Triple-A innings tell you what happens when hitters have to honor that dive late: they either swing over it or pound it into the dirt. He’s missed bats at a healthy clip as well (11.9% swinging-strike rate) and lived right around a strikeout per inning (9.03 K/9). That profile is tailor-made for the Braves: weak contact, worm-killers, and enough whiffs to escape jams.

The jams, though, are mostly self-inflicted. A 1.47 WHIP with a 4.91 BB/9 is the blinking red light on an otherwise sturdy development track. It’s not a luck story either; his FIP (4.39) and xFIP (4.39) sit right beside the 4.42 ERA, suggesting he’s earned what he’s gotten. The split is an out pitch, but like most chase-oriented secondaries, it doesn’t help much if you’re behind in counts.

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When Waldrep gets ahead, the arsenal plays like a No. 3 starter. When he’s in fastball counts, the pitch count climbs, and he’s one miss away from trouble. The path forward is straightforward: more early-count strikes with the fastball and some front-door/back-door landings with the slider to steal called strikes. He doesn’t need to be dotting quadrants to be effective; he just needs to be predictable enough to force two-strike decisions where the splitter can end the at-bat.

The encouraging part is how well the damage is contained, even when the command wobbles. Grounders and suppressed homers buy him margin for error that many walk-prone prospects don’t have. If he trims the walks to something closer to “merely below average,” his strikeout baseline and batted-ball profile can carry the rest.

The Braves have had success simplifying attack plans, getting ahead, expanding with the kill pitch, and Waldrep’s stuff fits that blueprint cleanly. He’s close. The ingredients suggest a viable starter; the strike-throwing will determine whether that shows up in Atlanta in the near term or requires a bit more sanding in Gwinnett.

Fantasy Outlook

In Dynasty, Waldrep is a classic bet-on-stuff arm whose splitter-driven ground-ball profile lowers blow-up risk once he finds a workable strike zone. The WHIP risk is very real right now, but the strikeouts and homer suppression give him a path to SP3 value if the walks come down a grade. In standard Roto, he’s more of a watchlist-and-stream type early, great for matchups in pitcher-friendly parks and against lineups that expand the zone, but volatile for WHIP until further notice.

In Points formats that penalize walks, he’s a stash with situational use; the innings and Ks can play when he’s in rhythm, but the free passes will cap the ceiling week to week. The upside is worth the hold in deeper leagues, and the Braves context adds win equity once he sticks, but your short-term plan should bake in some command turbulence.

Hurston Waldrep's 8th and 9th Ks.

13 Whiffs on his Splitter. pic.twitter.com/4BWumzJ5UZ

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 1, 2025

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