Right-hander Didier Fuentes has won himself a spot on the Braves’ Opening Day roster, ESPN’s Jeff Passan writes. The 20-year-old Fuentes made his big league debut last season with four starts and 13 innings for Atlanta, and he’ll now return to the Show in what Passan says will be a relief role.
Fuentes’ bullpen assignment provides some more clarity to the Braves’ rotation picture. Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Strider, and Grant Holmes have the top four positions, and Bryce Elder and Jose Suarez now appear to be the last two candidates for the fifth starter role. Fuentes is headed to the bullpen, top prospect JR Ritchie was assigned to the minor league camp yesterday, and minor league signing Martin Perez will remain in the organization but isn’t being included on the Opening Day roster.
With Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, and Joey Wentz all felled by injuries, rotation depth has been one of the primary storylines of Atlanta’s spring. This opened the door for multiple pitchers to try and win a job, and while Fuentes isn’t being ticketed for rotation duty, he certainly caught the Braves’ attention with an incredible Grapefruit League performance. Over three appearances and nine spotless innings, Fuentes didn’t allow even one walk or a hit, while striking out 17 batters — one HBP was the only thing keeping Fuentes from an unofficial perfect game during his spring work.
It is certainly possible Fuentes could receive a proper starting assignment, depending on how exactly the Braves choose to line up their rotation through a busy opening to the season. Atlanta doesn’t receive its first off-day until April 9, so it is very likely that both Elder and Suarez (or Fuentes) could get starts if the Braves deploy a six-man rotation in the early going. Even if Fuentes may not start, his ability to eat multiple innings out of the pen should prove useful as the Braves navigate this stretch of 13 straight games.
Fuentes has started 48 of his 52 career games in the minors, and his 2025 season saw the righty pitch at three different minor league levels as well as his four-start cup of coffee with the Braves. It may have been too much too soon for Fuentes since he was torched for an 13.85 ERA in his first exposure to MLB hitters, but the Braves had to dig into their depth chart after a swath of injuries wiped out their rotation last summer.
Fuentes has shown a knack for recording strikeouts and limiting walks in the minors, and some bad batted-ball luck might be why his 3.73 ERA over 202 2/3 minor league innings doesn’t exactly stand out. Still, there’s some obvious potential here even at Fuentes’ young age, and his huge spring numbers indicate that Fuentes might thrive as a reliever. While the Braves’ hand with Fuentes may have been forced by injuries last year, the team hasn’t been shy about quickly promoting prospects they feel can provide immediate help.
He definitely earned another shot 9 scoreless innings with 17 strikeouts that’s about as good of a spring training as you could dream of.
Did i read the stat line wrong?…9ip, 0 hits and 0 walks? Basically a perfect game haha?
Relief role? Really? I figured he’d be starting.
Gotta give Elder his 9000000000th chance.
Bowman article the other day made clear they would be taking the Strider approach & starting him off in the pen. It’s a 20 year old kid throwing in the upper 90s. He’ll likely be pitching 2-4 innings at a clip. They need it anyway given the April schedule. Perez or Suarez will also be needed in long relief.
Yeti- makes sense, thanks
Except they had him start 4 games and let him go 5 in his first MLB start.
@yetipro
I’m not against this idea of using him every 5 days behind someone else, like Elder. I actually hope Suarez starts over Elder as bad as that might be lol.
Yep. He can throw. But he probably needs to learn how to pitch.
Looks like he already knows
Just read that Perez was informed he won’t be making the roster. Given that he has no options, doesn’t that mean he’ll need to ok a demotion?
I always forget Fried started in the bullpen. Not a bad old school strategy you don’t see much anymore.
They need a long man if having both Lopez/Holmes in the rotation. Didier can go multiple like he did last outing (4 IP to close out the game — but not that many in ML play). I gotta think they really are only hoping for 5 IP from some of these arms the first few weeks, a different approach than year’s past when the were injured or gassed in the 2nd half.
Yay for Didier!
Didier Fuentes to me seems to be the kind of pitcher that a guy like Jeremy Hefner can get to full potential out of. Hefner does have a reputation of building out a pitcher’s arsenal as well as working on the shape and trajectory of pitches. I think that might be why we are seeing some of the gaudy numbers Fuentes has posted this spring. So while I won’t completely throw the baby out with the bath water in terms of Fuentes struggles last season, but knowing there is a pitching coach whose development style fits more with younger pitchers. I think we could see a real boon out of Fuentes. He definitely looks different this spring and while it is a small sample size. It shows that something is starting to stick.
It’s a Didier party!