AJ Smith-Shawver just turned 23. Literally, he turned 23 a couple weeks ago, on November 20. Given that he pitched in Atlanta in both 2023 and 2024, it always breaks my brain a bit to remember how young he is, even though he’s got parts of three MLB seasons under his belt.

Selected in the seventh round of the 2021 draft, the young righty still got nearly a million dollars in signing bonus. He got a very brief taste of the Complex Leagues that summer where his control was … atrocious. But the general idea there was more just to get into the swing of things in terms of being a professional athlete.

The following season, Smith-Shawver pitched the entire season in Low-A, and while the walk rate was rough (13 percent), the strikeout rate (34 percent) and stuff were eye-popping, putting him on

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