The catch of the year in professional baseball might have come in the Double-A Southern League on Friday night.
Brewers prospect Mark Coley II took away a home run with some extra drama, denying one of baseball’s top-100 prospects in one of the best plays of the 2026 season on a ridiculous second effort.
Braves outfielder Eric Hartman — the No. 73 overall prospect and the Braves’ second-best on MLB Pipeline — was suiting up in his fourth game at the Double-A level after crushing 24 long balls at High-A when he smashed a full-count offering deep to right-center field at Synovus Park in Columbus, Georgia.
Coley, patrolling center, tracked the ball to the wall and made a well-timed jump, leaping at the wall and getting a glove on the high-flying shot as it came back toward earth.
But Coley could not collect it on the first go, knocking the ball back onto the warning track.
As he fell to the dirt, though, Coley caught the ball with his glove while on his backside for what was an incredible F8 putout in the scorebook.
Coley helped save his starter, Manuel Rodriguez, who would have served up back-to-back-to-back home runs had the catch not been made.
It harkened back to Nationals center fielder Jacob Young, who made a circus catch at the wall — using his foot to catch a rebound — last September against the Mets’ Brett Baty.
Dewayne Wise, notably in 2009, saved White Sox hurler Mark Buehrle’s perfect game with a near-identical catch as Coley, though Wise caught his second effort with the bare hand.
Hartman later did get a measure of revenge, doubling to center on a play Coley was unable to catch.
Coley didn’t factor in at the plate for Double-A Biloxi in an 0-for-3 night during a 4-2 loss, but his defense turned plenty of heads.
