- Full name Tate Southisene
- Born 10/06/2006 in
- Profile Ht.: 5'11" / Wt.: 170 / Bats: R / Throws: R
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Drafted in the 1st round (22nd overall) by the Atlanta Braves in 2025 (signed for $2,622,500).
View Draft Report
School: Basic (Nev.) HS Drafted/Committed: USC
Age At Draft: 18.8
BA Grade: 55/Extreme
Southisene is the younger brother of Cubs second base prospect Ty Southisene, whom Chicago drafted in the fourth round in 2024 out of the same Basic Academy program in Nevada that Tate attended. Tate has a similar game and profile as Ty but has a chance to top his older brother’s draft status in the 2025 class. Southisene is a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, 170 pounds but has an enticing mix of baseball skills, a performance track record and a high-IQ style of play. Like his older brother, Southisene has moving parts in his righthanded swing, which starts with a low handset and features a moderate leg kick and a big hand hitch. He does a nice job using his entire body to generate stretch and torque in his swing to fire his hands through the zone and maximize his power output. Despite the moving parts, Southisene has a solid feel for the barrel and understands the strike zone. As he continues to add more strength, his ability to effectively impact, lift and backspin the baseball could lead to average game power, though he might be the sort of hitter who will need to trade a bit of contact to do so. Southisene is an above-average runner whose instincts might always allow his pure speed to play up. He’s spent time at shortstop and center field and could be an above-average defender at both positions, with a plus arm and a quick release in the infield. Southisene is committed to USC but fits as a top-two-rounds talent in the draft.
Scouting Grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run:55 | Field: 55 | Arm: 60.
Top Rankings
Organization Prospect Rankings
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BA Grade/Risk: 55/Extreme
Adjusted Grade: 35
Track Record: Southisene comes from an athletic baseball family. His older brother Ty was a fourth-round pick of the Cubs in 2024, and his younger brother Troy is a talented prospect in the 2026 class. Tate ranked as the No. 43 prospect in the 2025 draft and signed an under-slot $2,622,500 deal as Atlanta’s first-round pick. He struggled mightily in 15 games with Low-A Augusta with a .219/.242/.297 line and 40.9% strikeout rate.
Scouting Report: Southisene is a 5-foot-11, 180-pound shortstop and righthanded hitter with impressive stretch, torque and bat speed in a swing that features some moving parts. He has a low handset and a big leg kick, which worked fine in high school, where he showed solid barrel feel and strike-zone awareness, but that didn’t translate to his brief pro debut. While Southisene reportedly put together solid at-bats in unofficial games, he looked overmatched with Augusta. He swung far too frequently (53% swing rate), missed far too frequently (40% miss rate) and expanded the zone far too frequently (37% chase rate). The silver lining for Southisene was that when he did make contact, he hit the ball quite hard—particularly for his age—but even then his loudest contact was on the ground. Southisene was viewed as an above-average runner pre-draft, but Atlanta was surprised to see him turn in a few 70-grade run times after signing. He has experience at shortstop, center field and second base, and could wind up at any of the three up-the-middle positions. His initial defensive reps should come at shortstop, where he has a strong arm.
The Future: Southisene’s pro debut adds more uncertainty to his offensive profile, but if he can show that was just a blip on the radar he has an enticing power/speed combo and up-the-middle defensive profile.
Scouting Grades: Hit: 40 | Power: 50 | Run: 60 | Field: 55 | Arm: 60
Draft Prospects
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School: Basic (Nev.) HS Drafted/Committed: USC
Age At Draft: 18.8
BA Grade: 55/Extreme
Southisene is the younger brother of Cubs second base prospect Ty Southisene, whom Chicago drafted in the fourth round in 2024 out of the same Basic Academy program in Nevada that Tate attended. Tate has a similar game and profile as Ty but has a chance to top his older brother’s draft status in the 2025 class. Southisene is a bit undersized at 5-foot-11, 170 pounds but has an enticing mix of baseball skills, a performance track record and a high-IQ style of play. Like his older brother, Southisene has moving parts in his righthanded swing, which starts with a low handset and features a moderate leg kick and a big hand hitch. He does a nice job using his entire body to generate stretch and torque in his swing to fire his hands through the zone and maximize his power output. Despite the moving parts, Southisene has a solid feel for the barrel and understands the strike zone. As he continues to add more strength, his ability to effectively impact, lift and backspin the baseball could lead to average game power, though he might be the sort of hitter who will need to trade a bit of contact to do so. Southisene is an above-average runner whose instincts might always allow his pure speed to play up. He’s spent time at shortstop and center field and could be an above-average defender at both positions, with a plus arm and a quick release in the infield. Southisene is committed to USC but fits as a top-two-rounds talent in the draft.
Scouting Grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run:55 | Field: 55 | Arm: 60. -
School: Basic (Nev.) HS Committed: USC
Age At Draft: 18.8
Southisene has been one of the big up-arrow players from the 2025 high school class throughout the 2024 spring and summer seasons. He’s the brother of Ty Southisene, the Cubs’ fourth-round pick in 2024, with Tate hitting for a higher OBP and slugging percentage than Ty as high school teammates in the 2024 spring. Both players have good hand-eye coordination, and while there are a lot of moving parts to Tate’s swing, it has good sequence and he’s able to use his whole body to generate bat speed and maximize his power. Southisene starts with his hands at his waist, brings them up to his shoulders while loading with a leg kick, then fires the barrel forward. There’s a lot of stretch and torque to his swing that generates high-end exit velocities for his age with solid bat-to-ball skills. He typically doesn’t stray much outside the strike zone. Southisene has experience in the infield and outfield. He’s a tick above-average runner with good actions at shortstop, a quick release and an easy plus arm.
