1 KYLE MULLER LHP
Fastball: 60 Curveball: 55 Slider: 60 Changeup: 40 Control: 45 BA Grade: 50 Risk: Medium
Born: Oct. 7, 1997. B-T: R-L. HT: 6-7. WT: 250.
Drafted: HS—Dallas, 2016 (2nd round).
Signed by: Nate Dion.
TRACK RECORD: The Braves have had plenty of success developing former two-way players, and like graduated homegrown prospects Austin Riley and Michael Harris II, Muller was a standout two-way prospect in high school. Muller showed improved velocity during his 2016 draft year and leapt up draft boards after he struck out 24 straight batters over two starts in a competitive Dallas region. The Braves eventually signed Muller for $2.5 million in the second round of the 2016 draft and watched him continue to improve his stuff—to the point where he had some of the best pure arm talent in the system. Harnessing that stuff has always held Muller back, though with Triple-A Gwinnett in 2022 he posted his lowest walk rate (7.4%) since the 2018 season and pitched well in two of his three big league starts.
Muller has a four-pitch mix headlined by a fastball that sits in the 93-95 mph range and tops out around 97-98. While the pitch has ordinary life and shape, it does play up a bit thanks to his extension—a product of an extra-large, 6-foot-7, 250-pound frame. The Braves have encouraged Muller to attack the zone aggressively with his fastball, both to get ahead in counts and to make hitters swing. He did just that in the minors, throwing his fastball for strikes more than 70% of the time, which should allow him to use his secondaries more effectively to get hitters to chase. Muller throws a firm, upper-80s slider that averaged nearly 87 mph in the majors and put him among the top 25 hardest-thrown lefthanded sliders. The pitch is his go-to secondary offering, and analytically it is his best pitch overall, with impressive chase rates and a whiff rate around 40% in the minors. Muller’s slider has earned plus scouting grades, while his low-80s curveball is another quality breaking pitch with horizontal and vertical bite. His curve spin rate is in the 2,400 rpm range, though he threw the pitch in the zone less frequently than any
