The Atlanta Braves top international signing in January 2023 was Luis Guanipa out of Venezuela. Guanipa ranked as the #34 prospect according to Pipeline and commanded a $2.5M signing bonus.
Guanipa was seen as a bit of a late bloomer for an international signee, as he started to improve at the plate in the year before signing. He had been seen as a potential five tool talent with his gains just prior to signing.
What were the expectations?
The expectations for Guanipa this year were for him to just get on the field and play. That is because he was coming off of a basically lost season in 2024 due to injuries limiting him to only 52 games. Beyond that he never got going at the plate, partially because of the starting and stopping he did, and he posted just a .577 OPS between Augusta and the FCL.
The best way to describe Guanipa’s 2025 season was mixed results. Injuries came back again, and actually held him to even fewer games than 2024’s injury plagued season. In 35 games he hit .262/.345/.325 with five doubles, a homer, two steals, 14 walks, and 20 strikeouts in 142 plate appearances between Augusta and the FCL again.
Guanipa started the year in Augusta and made it three games before needing to be shut down for just over two months. He finally returned in the FCL on June 12th and spent six games there, before heading back to Augusta for the rest of the season. He made it until late-July before injuries came up again, which limited him to just five games after July 25th.
While we didn’t get to see a ton of Guanipa this year, we did get to see some positives. The single biggest positive we saw was him be able to make adjustments and improve at the plate. Guanipa got off to a rough start on the year, hitting just .190/.309/.259 through his first 17 games of the season, split between two levels. After working with the Augusta coaching staff he was able to make some changes to his approach and hit .324/.378/.382 with just nine strikeouts over his final 18 games of the season with Augusta.
There would be two things here. The obvious one is that for the second straight year he was significantly limited by injuries. At this point he has played just 61 games above the FCL in his career, all in Augusta. Keeping him on the field will be imperative in 2026, as it’s hard for a player to progress in his development without actually playing regularly.
The other thing you could say went wrong for Guanipa has been his lack of power. After four homers with 11 doubles and a triple in 46 games in the DSL in 2023, there were hopes that he could develop into that true five tool player for the Braves. Now some of that may be on the injuries, but this year he managed just five doubles and a homer in 142 plate appearances, which followed his four doubles, two triples, and two homers last year. While it’s not unusual for a guy to have his power emerge as he grows into it – and Guanipa spent 2025 in his age-19 season, for a guy with his speed and bat speed to not have more extra-base hits is a bit concerning, even if he did see a little uptick in his power production in the second half of his season.
It’s important to remember that 2026 will only be the age-20 season for Guanipa, so it’s hard to write anything off for him at this point. He will definitely need to stay on the field and avoid a third straight injury plagued season, but he’s still young enough that it won’t matter a ton if he starts the season back in Augusta, or moves up to Rome. Regardless, the hope for him will be that he at the very least reaches Rome at some point in 26, and continues to build upon the success he had to close out the 2025 season. Obviously seeing some power start to emerge in his game, even if it’s more in the form of doubles than homers, will be another key for him as well.
