{"id":116063,"date":"2026-03-21T13:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T17:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=116063"},"modified":"2026-03-21T13:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T17:27:23","slug":"didier-fuentes-atlanta-braves-on-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/21\/didier-fuentes-atlanta-braves-on-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Braves Prospect&#8217;s Dominant Spring Propels to Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">After an outstanding spring, Atlanta Braves prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/16\/didier-fuentes-making-braves-opening-day\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">Didier Fuentes<\/span><\/a> has made the Opening Day roster. According to ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan, the 20-year-old right-hander will be a part of the bullpen and not <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/18\/atlanta-braves-starting-rotation\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">the starting rotation<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Atlanta Braves Prospect Dominant Spring Earns Roster Spot<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In three games this spring, the Braves&#8217; third overall prospect didn&#8217;t allow an earned run and struck out 17. Even more impressive, Fuentes didn&#8217;t walk or hit a batter in nine innings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fuentes pitched in four games for the Braves last season and struggled, allowing 20 earned runs in 13.0 innings.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Didier Fuentes has made the Atlanta Braves\u2019 Opening Day roster and at 20 years old will be part of their bullpen \u2014 and he earned it. Fuentes\u2019 numbers this spring: nine innings, no hits, no runs, no walks, 17 strikeouts. He was too good for the Braves to deny and is a huge talent.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/2035370001256063445?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"s3\">Didier Fuentes Could be Effective in the Atlanta Braves&#8217; Bullpen<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A starter by trade, Fuentes\u2019s stuff could play up in the bullpen, with his fastball topping out at 98mph. On a 20-80 grade scale for his pitches, his fastball (60) ranks above-average. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fuentes also complements his arsenal with a slider (average, 50), a curveball (below-average, 45), and a splitter (below-average, 45). Fuentes\u2019s curveball and splitter are a \u201c<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/braves\/didier-fuentes-800311\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s2\">work in progress<\/span><\/a>,\u201d but his fastball\/slider combination should get him by in the bullpen. However, Fuentes has never worked out of the bullpen in his young professional career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Given all the Braves&#8217; injuries to the starting staff, Fuentes does offer another starter to eat innings. As it stands, the Braves&#8217; rotation will likely be: <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1. Left-hander Chris Sale \u2014 Opening Day starter <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">2. Right-hander Spencer Strider <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">3. Right-hander Grant Holmes <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">4. Right-hander Reynaldo Lopez<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">5. Left-hander Martin Perez\/right-hander Bryce Elder<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Elder struggled this spring \u2014 4.73 ERA and walked five in 13.1 innings \u2014 and could be on a short leash. Perez had a 2.84 ERA and struck out 10 in 12.2 innings.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"s3\">Other Atlanta Braves News<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Also, putting together decent enough springs to make the roster are<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/19\/atlanta-braves-jurickson-profar-will-miss-all-of-2026\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\"> first baseman Dominic Smith<\/span><\/a> and infielder Kyle Farmer. Smith batted .242 with a .706 OPS, while Farmer hit .400 with a .931 OPS. The Braves officially signed both to one-year split contracts for 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Braves?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Braves<\/a> today signed INFs Kyle Farmer and Dominic Smith to one-year, split contracts for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Atlanta Braves (@Braves) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Braves\/status\/2035357343433584681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Smith will likely be one of the Braves&#8217; designated hitters after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/19\/atlanta-braves-jurickson-profar-will-miss-all-of-2026\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">Jurickson Profar officially was suspended<\/span><\/a>. Farmer will be a solid bench bat and could be an option to play shortstop until Ha-Seong Kim returns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: <span>Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After an outstanding spring, Atlanta Braves prospect Didier Fuentes has made the Opening Day roster. According to ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan, the 20-year-old right-hander will be a part of the bullpen and not the starting rotation. Atlanta Braves Prospect Dominant Spring Earns Roster Spot In three games this spring, the Braves&#8217; third overall prospect didn&#8217;t allow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5794,"featured_media":116074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1071],"tags":[29002],"class_list":["post-116063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","category-mlb","tag-didier-fuentes"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116063"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116075,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116063\/revisions\/116075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}