Braves Notes: Fuentes, Kim, Roster Decisions
Braves prospect Didier Fuentes was a healthy scratch from a scheduled start yesterday and could be an option to join the big league pitching staff in the near future. As Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution breaks down, Fuentes’ scratch doesn’t necessarily guarantee a recall to the majors, but the Braves are light on options to summon as they embark on a sequence of 10 games in 10 days. Each of Hayden Harris, Dylan Dodd and Rolddy Muñoz was optioned late last week, meaning they can’t be recalled for 15 days (from the date of their option) unless they’re directly replacing an injured player on the roster. Skipping Fuentes’ start yesterday also helps to manage the promising 20-year-old’s workload after he only pitched 70 total innings (majors and minors combined) in 2025.
Fuentes has been terrific so far in Gwinnett this season. He’s taken the ball three times, tossed a total of 16 2/3 innings and held opponents to four runs (2.16 ERA) on eight hits and six walks with 20 strikeouts. He’s also plunked three batters and tossed a wild pitch, so his command hasn’t exactly been pristine, but the results and bat-missing capabilities are impressive.
Throughout spring training, there were calls from Atlanta fans to plug Fuentes into the rotation — understandably so. To this point in the season, however, there are five Braves pitchers who’ve started multiple games — Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Grant Holmes, Martín Pérez, Bryce Elder — and none has an ERA higher than 3.42 (Holmes). Despite all the injuries, Atlanta starters remarkably lead the majors with a 2.65 ERA. Metrics like FIP (4.02) and SIERA (4.05) are far more bearish, but it’d be hard for Braves brass to tell any of the current starters he’s losing his place in the rotation. Atlanta already briefly jettisoned Pérez, but he quickly re-signed on a new deal and responded by tossing six shutout innings in Philadelphia on Friday.
None of that includes righty Spencer Strider, who’s working his way back from an oblique injury and could return early next month. The Braves will need to figure out a way to plug Strider back into the rotation whenever he’s cleared to return. Elder looked to be very much on the roster bubble in spring training, but he’s allowed only two earned runs through his first 23 1/3 innings. Pérez, as previously mentioned, just fired six shutout innings on the road against a top division rival. He now has a 2.21 ERA on the year. Perhaps another injury will make the decision easier, but if everyone’s healthy, it’s fair to say that “too many effective starters” isn’t a problem many foresaw Atlanta encountering a few weeks back (though it’s a “problem” they’ll surely welcome with open arms).
On the position-player side of the roster, the Braves will have some decisions looming regarding seldom-used veterans currently holding down bench spots. Catcher Sean Murphy is on a rehab assignment. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim is headed for a simulated game Thursday, manager Walt Weiss told the Atlanta beat (via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). He could begin a rehab assignment next week himself.
The return of Murphy, on paper, would seem to be bad news for veteran backstop Jonah Heim, who’s 5-for-23 in limited action as the No. 2 catcher behind reigning National League Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin. As Bowman points out, however, infielder Kyle Farmer has only received seven plate appearances all season. The organization loves his presence in the clubhouse, but he’s even more seldom-used than Heim. Keeping Heim over Farmer could allow the Braves to more comfortably use both Baldwin and Murphy in the same lineup, splitting time at catcher and DH, with Heim on hand as an emergency option.
Of course, when Kim returns — likely in mid-May — both Heim and Farmer could be squeezed out. No one on the Braves’ bench can be optioned, so two of Farmer, Heim, Jorge Mateo and Eli White are likely to find themselves displaced, barring other injuries that allow the team to kick those decisions down the road a bit.
Mateo has hit quite well, albeit in a tiny sample of 20 plate appearances. His prior track record doesn’t create much optimism about him sustaining this pace, but he’s still an elite runner with 98th-percentile sprint speed (per Statcast) and some defensive versatility. White has been the team’s worst hitter … in a similarly tiny sample of 22 plate appearances. He’s a terrific outfield defender, however, and Statcast measures his sprint speed even better than Mateo, placing him at the very top of the MLB scale with 30.4 feet per second (100th percentile).
Braves Select Martín Pérez
April 17th: Perez was officially selected back to the roster today.
April 15th: The Braves seem set to bring Martín Pérez right back up to the majors. Manager Walt Weiss told reporters this evening that the veteran southpaw was among the options to start Friday’s series opener against Philadelphia (relayed by Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Mark Bowman of MLB.com suggests it will indeed be Pérez, who is also listed as the team’s probable starter opposite Taijuan Walker on the MLB website.
Atlanta designated him for assignment on Sunday and ran him through outright waivers. Pérez elected free agency but returned on a minor league contract this morning. That might’ve come with an understanding that he’d be quickly called back up. The transactional sequence allowed the Braves to carry a nine-man bullpen for the intervening few games, though it obviously came with the possibility that another team would claim Pérez off waivers.
Pérez has made three appearances in an Atlanta uniform. He has gotten decent results, allowing just five runs across 14 1/3 innings. The 35-year-old southpaw has only struck out six of the 53 batters he faced with a well below-average 7.2% swinging strike percentage.
Bryce Elder is on the mound for tonight’s series finale against Miami. The Braves are off tomorrow. Pérez’s return allows them to give an extra day of rest to their other starters. It’ll be Chris Sale vs. Cristopher Sánchez in a phenomenal pitching duel on Saturday and Grant Holmes opposite rookie Andrew Painter to round out the weekend divisional set. Atlanta hasn’t listed probable starters for next week’s series against the Nationals but would have Reynaldo López and Elder on schedule for the first two games.
The Braves already have two openings on their 40-man roster. They’d only need to make an active roster move involving a pitcher as a corresponding transaction. Dylan Lee and Hayden Harris are their only pitchers with minor league options. They’ll presumably option Harris out after tonight’s game.
Braves, Martín Pérez Agree To New Minor League Deal
The Braves and veteran lefty Martín Pérez are in agreement on another minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Atlanta designated the 35-year-old for assignment over the weekend, and he elected free agency after clearing waivers. The Octagon client is now quickly returning to the Braves organization on a non-guaranteed deal, although given the mountain of injuries on the Atlanta pitching staff, it’s likely that Pérez will be back in the major league fold before all that long.
It’s increasingly common in today’s game for mid-30s veterans — particularly pitchers — to be designated for assignment and quickly re-sign upon being released. The Braves themselves have done this frequently in the past with Jesse Chavez, and we’ve seen clubs like the Mariners (Casey Lawrence), Yankees (Ryan Weber, David Hale) and Marlins (Devin Smeltzer) regularly shuffle players on and off the 40-man roster via repeated cycles of DFA, outright, and new minor league pacts. Organizations are typically up front about their intentions in these scenarios, and the player is obviously amenable to the setup. We don’t yet know if that’s the route down which Pérez is headed with Atlanta, but this is a first step in that direction.
Pérez has made three appearances for manager Walt Weiss’ club this season — two starts, one relief outing — and held opponents to five runs in 14 1/3 innings. That comes out to a tidy 3.14 earned run average, but Pérez’s six strikeouts (11.3%) and 90 mph sinker make it tough to imagine him sustaining that level of run prevention.
The veteran Pérez has been a reliable back-end starter in the second act of his career, dating back to 2020, with a collective 3.99 ERA in his past 719 1/3 MLB frames. That number is skewed a bit by an outlier 2022 season (2.89 ERA in 196 innings); Pérez has generally been good for bulk innings and a mid-4.00s ERA. Metrics like FIP (4.39) and SIERA (4.65) feel that’s about where his run prevention should reside, based on his strikeouts, walks, ground balls, etc.
The Braves currently have an entire rotation’s worth of arms on the injured list. Spencer Strider (oblique strain), Spencer Schwellenbach (surgery to remove bone chips from elbow), Hurston Waldrep (same as Schwellenbach), AJ Smith-Shawver (Tommy John surgery last June) and Joey Wentz (torn ACL) are all on the shelf. Wentz won’t return this season. Smith-Shawver, Schwellenbach and Waldrep are likely out until early or mid-summer.
At the moment, Atlanta’s rotation includes Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder. Lefty José Suarez and righty Osvaldo Bido are swing options in the bullpen. Prospects JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes are intriguing options in the minor leagues, though the former has yet to make his MLB debut and is not yet on the 40-man roster.
Pérez adds an experienced depth option to the mix. There’s enough track record here that he could pitch his way into a more permanent rotation spot, but if he’s comfortable riding the DFA carousel that Atlanta has previously utilized with Chavez, that could also present a path to somewhat consistent innings (albeit a more circuitous one).
Martín Pérez Elects Free Agency
Veteran left-hander Martín Pérez elected free agency, relays Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal Constitution. He cleared outright waivers after being designated for assignment by the Braves on Sunday.
Pérez made three appearances in an Atlanta uniform. He got decent results, allowing just five runs across 14 1/3 innings. The 35-year-old southpaw only struck out six of the 53 batters he faced with a well below-average 7.2% swinging strike percentage. The Braves opted not to continue running him out as their fifth starter. They’re carrying a nine-man bullpen for the time being — a luxury partially afforded by a day off on Thursday — but will need a fifth starter or bullpen game early next week.
Spencer Strider is set to begin a rehab assignment on Thursday. He’ll make at least three minor league appearances. The Braves could recall Didier Fuentes or turn to José Suarez to lead a bullpen game in the Pérez spot.
It’s possible the Braves look to bring Pérez back on a minor league deal. They don’t have much in the way of upper minors rotation experience. If Pérez is unable to find a big league contract as a free agent, he could be best served returning to an organization with which he’s already familiar.
Braves To Designate Martin Perez For Assignment
The Braves are designating left-hander Martin Perez for assignment, as Walt Weiss told reporters (including Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal Constitution). He’s being replaced on the active roster by southpaw Dylan Dodd, who is being recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett.
Perez, 35, is now in the 15th season of his MLB career. He was signed by the Rangers out of Venezuela and made his pro debut all the way back in 2008, but didn’t make it to the big leagues until 2012. Since then, he’s spent his career pitching to more or less league average results as a back-of-the-rotation starter and swing man. He signed with the White Sox last year but spent most of the 2025 season on the injured list with elbow and shoulder issues. For the few outings Perez was able to make last year, he was effective with a 3.54 ERA and 4.24 FIP in 56 1/3 innings of work.
That wasn’t enough to get him a big league deal headed into his age-35 season, but he did latch on with Atlanta on a minor league pact. Though he didn’t initially make the team out of Spring Training, early injuries in the rotation led Atlanta to select Perez to the majors to help eat innings. He did so capably, offering 14 1/3 innings of five-run ball across three appearances for the Braves prior to his DFA. He’s struck out just six in that time, but the results when healthy lately have been solid. He’s posted a 3.46 ERA and 4.46 FIP between the White Sox, Padres, and Braves since getting traded to San Diego at the 2024 trade deadline.
Of course, that hardly makes him a true-talent 3.46 ERA pitcher at this stage of his career. Perez has a long history of volatility when it comes to his results, which has resulted in him making an All-Star appearance in 2022 while struggling to even stay within the range of league average in other years. Taken together, Perez has a career 100 ERA+ across more than 1600 big league innings and should be expected to produce more of that back-of-the-rotation, innings-eating work as long as health permits.
That could make the lefty an intriguing option for any number of teams struggling with pitching injuries in the early going. The Blue Jays, Cubs, and Astros are among the teams that have sent multiple key pitchers to the injured list in recent weeks, and any of them might be willing to roll the dice on Perez and his modest salary in the $3.5MM range. All of those clubs entered 2026 as expected contenders, but even a non-contending club like the White Sox could pick Perez up and slot him into the rotation to help stabilize their rotation after Shane Smith‘s struggles led to him being optioned to the minors this past week.
If Perez does not get plucked off waivers by another club, he could accept an outright assignment to the minors with Atlanta, where he would wait for his next opportunity with the club. Another option would be to elect free agency and test the open market. With that said, Perez might benefit from accepting an outright given that the Braves have their own pitching needs and will surely call upon him again in relatively short order if he stays with the organization.
For now, however, his roster spot will go to Dodd. The lefty has a career 5.68 ERA in the majors but posted a more respectable 3.60 ERA in 35 innings as a relief arm for the Braves last year. He figures to serve as a long reliever for Atlanta in the coming days, a role where he should prove valuable in the short-term while Atlanta uses upcoming days off in the schedule as an opportunity to utilize a four-man rotation. As noted by Mark Bowman of MLB.com, the Braves won’t need a fifth starter until April 21 given the structure of their upcoming schedule. At that point, Perez could rejoin the MLB roster if he’s still in the organization.
Braves Pitching Notes: Strider, Pérez, Fuentes
Spencer Strider threw a 20-pitch bullpen session on Friday as he works back from the oblique strain that shelved him to begin the season. Braves manager Walt Weiss tells reporters (including Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) that the righty will probably need a rehab start before he’s ready to return to the big league club.
There’s a decent chance Strider will need to throw a live batting practice session before he heads out on a minor league assignment. That’s usually the intervening step between a bullpen session and rehab stint. Strider seems to be progressing nicely, though, and he looks to be on track to make his season debut within the next couple weeks.
Strider worked 8 1/3 innings over three appearances during Spring Training. The final of those came on March 11 before he tweaked his left oblique. A healthy Strider would have followed Chris Sale in the season-opening rotation. Grant Holmes and Reynaldo López have stepped into the second and third spots, respectively. They’ve pitched well through the first two turns. López’s fastball velocity has ticked back up into the 94 mph range after sitting at worrisome levels in Spring Training.
The final two spots are still questionable. Bryce Elder had a nice season debut against the A’s earlier this week, working six scoreless innings with five punchouts. He’ll go against Michael Soroka tomorrow in the third game of their four-game set in Arizona. The Braves have yet to announce who’ll oppose Brandon Pfaadt in the series finale.
José Suarez took that spot the first time through the rotation. He didn’t escape the fourth inning, allowing four runs on five hits and four walks in a 5-2 loss to the A’s on Tuesday. Martín Pérez followed with 4 1/3 scoreless frames and three strikeouts in a mop-up role.
Neither pitcher has taken the ball since that appearance, and Mark Bowman of MLB.com writes that it likely sets up for the Braves to flip their roles in this turn. They could temporarily tab Pérez as the fifth starter while using Suarez in a low-leverage relief role. Dylan Lee is the only of their current 13 MLB pitchers who has minor league options. Barring intervening injuries, at least one of Pérez, Suarez or Osvaldo Bido will probably be pushed off the roster once Strider returns.
Didier Fuentes is something of a wild card in those pitching plans. The 20-year-old broke camp in long relief and reeled off four innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts in his only appearance. The Braves optioned him after that outing, a prearranged plan to allow him to build as a more traditional starter in the minors.
Fuentes made his first start of the season with Triple-A Gwinnett this evening. He struck out seven while allowing just two baserunners (one hit and walk apiece) across 3 1/3 innings. Fuentes got up to 72 pitches after a 56-pitch outing in his MLB appearance. He’s probably only one or two starts from being built up as a rotation candidate.
The Braves will need to decide how best to use Fuentes without overworking him. The Colombian-born righty tossed 70 innings last year between the minors and a four-start look in the big leagues. He has yet to reach 80 innings in a professional season.
Atlanta isn’t going to fully unleash him for 150+ innings and surely wants to see continued development in his command and secondary pitches. That said, Fuentes has an excellent fastball and has had a dominant few weeks going back to Spring Training, where he struck out 18 of the 43 batters he faced. After looking overmatched when the Braves hurried him to the majors last summer, he seems much better positioned to carve out an MLB role this year.
Braves Select Martín Pérez, Option Didier Fuentes
10:25am: Fuentes will start for Gwinnett on Friday, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. He’ll get a couple minor league turns to build up to around 90 pitches and then be more strongly considered for the big league rotation.
8:48am: The Braves announced Monday morning that they’ve selected the contract of veteran lefty Martín Pérez from Triple-A Gwinnett. Right-hander Didier Fuentes was optioned to Gwinnett to clear a spot on the active roster. Atlanta already had a 40-man vacancy, so Fuentes is the only corresponding transaction needed.
Some fans will bristle at optioning Fuentes after he shined with four innings of one-run ball in long relief yesterday, but that four-inning appearance means he’d have been unavailable for the next few days anyhow. He’ll surely be back in the fold before long, but the Braves will presumably be cautious with his workload this season. He pitched only 70 innings total between the minors and major leagues last year.
Pérez, 35 next week, signed a minor league deal over the winter and was in the mix for a rotation spot this spring — particularly after Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, Joey Wentz and Spencer Strider went down with injuries. He had a nice Grapefruit League showing, working to a 2.84 ERA in 12 2/3 innings, but Atlanta reassigned him to minor league camp to begin the season. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t an especially long stint. He can now step into the same long relief/swing role that Fuentes held, providing some length behind out-of-options starters Bryce Elder and José Suarez. Alternatively, the Braves could move either Elder or Suarez to a swing role and go with Pérez in the rotation.
A flexor strain knocked Pérez out for most of the 2025 season, but he was sharp in his limited action with the White Sox. He tossed 56 innings with the South Siders, his seventh career team, and logged a 3.54 earned run average. Pérez fanned only 19.3% of his opponents against a 9.6% walk rate. He’s never missed many bats but has generally held his own through sharp command, solid ground-ball tendencies and plenty of weak contact.
Atlanta will be Pérez’s eighth career team. He’s been a steady back-of-the-rotation starter for a good while now, starting a full slate of 12 games in the shortened 2020 campaign and making between 20 and 32 starts in the other five seasons from 2019-24 (while pitching to a collective 4.27 ERA). Last year marked the first time since 2018 that Pérez required a trip to the 60-day injured list.
Braves To Place Spencer Strider On Injured List
Braves righty Spencer Strider is going to start the season on the injured list due to an oblique strain, manager Walt Weiss announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The team hasn’t provided a formal timeline, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for around a month.
Strider, 27, last pitched a full season in 2023. He made only two starts in 2024 before requiring UCL surgery that would sideline him into the 2025 campaign. The rehab from that surgery, combined with a hamstring strain, limited Strider to 23 starts last year. He pitched 125 1/3 innings but worked with diminished velocity and overall stuff, leading to a 4.45 ERA and rate stats that were markedly worse than their pre-injury levels.
The hope had been for a healthier Strider to bounce back closer to his brilliant 2022-23 form. Instead, he’ll be the latest addition to a list of key players who are unavailable to begin the year. It’s been a nightmare spring for Atlanta. The Braves have lost righties Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep for months following surgeries to remove loose bodies from their elbows. Left-hander Joey Wentz tore his ACL and is out for the season. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim suffered a hand injury in a fall before even reporting to camp and will be out for more than a month to begin the year. Left fielder/designated hitter Jurickson Profar was suspended for the entire season following a second positive PED test.
Atlanta’s lack of pitching depth has been a story throughout camp. With Strider headed to the injured list, the Braves will open the season with Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez and Grant Holmes as their top three starters. Lopez pitched only once last year due to shoulder surgery. Holmes suffered a UCL tear last summer and rehabbed it without surgery.
Plans beyond that top trio are murky for the time being. Right-hander Bryce Elder and left-hander José Suarez are out of minor league options and will presumably both make the roster, though either could be bound for the bullpen. Bowman calls Suarez a “likely” starter to begin the season and adds that the club could consider selecting the contract of non-roster veteran Martín Pérez, who’d previously been informed he was not making the club. Right-hander Didier Fuentes is still ticketed for the bullpen, Weiss tells Bowman.
It’s a paper-thin rotation group at this point, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos make some form of addition to further stockpile some depth. There ought to be several veterans opting out of/being released from minor league deals in the final days of camp, and arms of varying quality will be designated for assignment due to the annual Opening Day roster crunch.
Braves Sign Dominic Smith, Kyle Farmer To Split Contracts
The Braves announced that Dominic Smith and Kyle Farmer have been signed to Major League split contracts for the 2026 season. The two veterans were already in camp on minor league deals, but as Article XX(B) free agents, Smith and Farmer had the ability to opt out of their contracts five days before Opening Day if they weren’t added to the Braves’ 40-man roster.
These new deals mean that Smith and Farmer will be breaking camp with the club. The Braves have two open spots on their 40-man roster, so they can easily accommodate officially selecting Smith and Farmer closer to the team’s first game. Both players are out of minor league options and the Braves would have to designate either for assignment and then sweat out any waiver claims before sending either to the minors, plus Smith and Farmer have enough MLB service time to just reject a minor league assignment anyway.
It seemed like the two veterans were both somewhat long shots to make Atlanta’s roster, yet some opportunity was created when Jurickson Profar was issued a season-long PED suspension, and Ha-Seong Kim suffered a torn finger tendon that will keep him out until at least the start of May. The door may now be open for Smith to earn some at-bats as a left-handed hitting option for the DH spot, even if his usual first base spot is obviously filled by Matt Olson on an everyday basis. Smith has played in just one Major League game as an outfielder over the last four seasons, but he could get some occasional backup work if Ronald Acuna Jr. or Mike Yastrzemski needs a rest day.
For Farmer, Mauricio Dubon taking over the shortstop role in Kim’s absence means the Braves are short some versatile infield depth. Jorge Mateo and Brett Wisely are also competing for bench jobs and Eli White is expected to be the primary backup outfielder, and both Wisely and White are also out of minor league options.
Martin Perez is another minor league signing in Atlanta’s camp, and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that Perez has been told he isn’t making the team. However, the veteran southpaw will forego his first Article XX(B) opt-out clause and remain in the organization as a Triple-A depth farm.
Poll: Who Will Be The Braves’ Fifth Starter?
The Atlanta rotation has had a rough go of it this spring. Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both hit the injured list before Spring Training games even began, and now they’ve been followed by the loss of lefty Joey Wentz to a season-ending ACL tear. The timelines for Waldrep and Schwellenbach aren’t yet clear, but they figure to miss significant time following surgeries to remove loose bodies from their elbows. (Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day IL.) That leaves the Braves with a lot of uncertainty in the rotation. Grant Holmes and Reynaldo Lopez are coming off injury-marred 2025 seasons, but they’ll be relied on for mid-rotation innings behind Chris Sale and Spencer Strider.
There’s still one rotation spot open. Wentz was in position to make a play for that spot and had a decent spring showing: two runs, three hits, four walks, one hit batter, six punchouts in 5 2/3 innings (3.18 ERA). His injury opens the competition up to a larger group.
The on-paper favorite is likely to be right-hander Bryce Elder, who made 28 starts for the Braves last year. Elder is still just 27 years old and was an All-Star back in 2023 thanks to a big first half, but in his past 52 starts he’s posted a 5.63 ERA with a below-average 18.4% strikeout rate against an 8.3% walk rate. Metrics like SIERA (4.56) and FIP (4.76) have been a bit better kinder, but Elder is approaching 300 innings with an ERA north of 5.50 over the past two and a half calendar years.
Elder’s status as the presumptive favorite is more about incumbency, being on the 40-man roster and being out of minor league options. He hasn’t made a strong case this spring, turning in a lackluster 6.48 ERA in three starts. That leaves the door wide open for someone else to grab the job.
Left-hander José Suarez is also out of minor league options and on the 40-man roster. He has an uneven big league track record but pitched well between 61 2/3 minor league innings and 19 1/3 major league frames for Atlanta last winter. He’s allowed four runs in 6 2/3 spring innings. Suarez gave the Angels 207 1/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball in 2021-22 before being tagged for a 6.91 ERA in 86 innings across a pair of injury-marred seasons in 2023-24.
The most prominent non-roster veteran in camp is southpaw Martín Pérez. The lefty has allowed only one run in five spring innings and is coming off a season where he posted decent numbers (3.54 ERA, 4.24 FIP) in 56 innings for the White Sox. Flexor and shoulder injuries shortened his 2025 season, and the days of Pérez’s blip of All-Star-caliber work with the Rangers (2.89 ERA, 3.9 fWAR in 2022) are likely behind him. Still, he has the potential to be an effective back-end starter.
Those aren’t the only options for the role. Veteran Carlos Carrasco is in camp, but after posting a 9.88 ERA in three starts for Atlanta last season and allowing nine runs on 11 hits in 6 1/3 spring innings this year, he seems unlikely to be the top choice. Didier Fuentes made his MLB debut last year and has tossed four scoreless innings this spring, but he won’t celebrate his 21st birthday until June and might be better served with more time in the minors. Top pitching prospect JR Ritchie enjoyed a strong season at Triple-A last year and has looked good so far this spring (3.38 ERA in eight innings). He’s not yet on the 40-man roster.
Another possibility that can’t be entirely ruled out is an external addition. Lucas Giolito remains available and seems like an obvious fit — despite an apparent lack of interest on Atlanta’s part thus far. Other veterans like Tyler Anderson and Patrick Corbin remain unsigned, too. Any of those pitchers could be added to the mix with the intent of them eventually taking over the fifth starter job, but the team would likely need to trade for a player that’s already been pitching for another club in order to add someone who will immediately be ready to join the rotation at the start of the season. A free agent like Giolito would surely need to get work in at extended Spring Training at this point.
How do MLBTR readers think the Braves will round out their rotation? Will they give the job to Elder and hope for better results than last year? Will they go with a young prospect like Fuentes or Ritchie, or perhaps a veteran like Pérez or Carrasco? Perhaps they’ll eschew all those options for an external addition? Vote now in the poll below: