The North Port Report: Didier Fuentes Announces His Arrival to Spring Training

Here's everything you need to know from Braves Spring Training in North Port, FL from Saturday and Sunday

Welcome to The North Port Report, your nightly notebook from Braves spring training. Each evening, we’ll run through the biggest developments from camp: roster battles, injury updates, standout performances, and the small details that matter more than they seem in early March. The games may not count yet, but the information does.

(We’re back after taking Saturday off - my wife and I celebrated our fourteenth wedding anniversary by dropping the kids off with the in-laws and taking in an Auburn baseball doubleheader from the club seats. It was nice to watch a game as a fan for a change!)

Here’s what stood out this weekend

Didier Fuentes made his long-anticipated return to competition this weekend and it was worth the wait.

Delayed for the start of spring by his recovery from a shoulder issue, Fuentes got two innings on the road versus the Orioles on Saturday and made the most of them. He struck out four with no hits or walks, but of course, the process is what we care about, not the results. And the process was good - Fuentes averaged 97.4 on his four-seamer, up nearly a mile and a half per hour over his MLB debut last year, and picked up seven whiffs on ten swings against the pitch. Per Statcast, Fuentes is just one of six pitchers to throw 20 or more four-seamers in a single spring training game and get a 35% or better whiff rate.

I was particularly impressed with his command of the four-seamer up in the zone when I went back and re-watched the outing this morning. Three of the four strikeouts came on elevated heaters, with the final punchout was bad process but good result - Fuentes put a 2-2 heater middle-middle and the hitter fouled it off, so he went back to the exact same spot and got the whiff.

I do want to point out that while Statcast called his secondary pitch a sweeper, it looked and moved a lot like a gyro/bullet slider, so this appears to be a Spencer Strider starter kit that Fuentes is rocking here. (They’ll reclassify that when they make manual adjustments - it’s a delayed process for spring training as compared to the regular season.)

On Sunday, Bryce Elder got the start on the road vs the Rays in Port Charlotte. He struggled with his locations, ultimately being tagged for five runs, although two of those came on a homer given up by reliever Darius Vines. This outing was a perfect example of when things go wrong for Elder - staked to a 4-0 lead for his first inning of work, he allowed a bunt single, a hit-by-pitch, and a wild pitch to put two in scoring position. While he got out of the inning only allowing one run (on a sacrifice fly), thanks to a well-timed double play, he wasn’t so lucky in his second inning of work. He finished with three walks and six hits across 3.1 innings, striking out two.

Tampa Bay seemed intent on practicing their bunts today, and a Braves pitcher might have paid the price for it. In the second bunt single of the day for Taylor Walls, coming in the bottom of the 5th, there was some sort of collision at the bag between him and Braves pitcher Joey Wentz. The cart came out to take Wentz off the field, although reports from media on-site in Florida are that Wentz walked into the road clubhouse under his own power and the Braves believe he avoided serious injury.

Joel Payamps made his spring training debut on Sunday and gave Atlanta a scoreless and hitless inning, albeit with one walk and no strikeouts. He erased the leadoff walk with a double play before getting a flyout to end the frame. And more importantly, speaking of process over results, Payamps averaged 96 mph on his four-seamer (a full 1.3 mph ahead of last season’s 94.7). He’ll need to quickly stack innings and do a back-to-back or two to show he’s ready for a spot on Opening Day.

Quick Hits

• Atlanta’s offense keeps looking like a juggernaut in spring - On Saturday, Austin Riley hit his third homer of spring, with Mike Yastrzemski going back-to-back with him (off a lefty, too). Michael Harris drew yet another walk, his third of spring in 18 plate appearances, while Mauricio Dubón led off versus a lefty and channeled his inner Ronald Acuña Jr. and doubled on the second pitch to open the game.

  • On Sunday, more of the same. The backups staked Atlanta to a 4-0 lead after first-inning homers from Ben Gamel and Kyle Farmer. Luke Williams added one in the 2nd frame, with Jair Camargo adding one late as part of a 12-hit, eight-run afternoon.

• Ozzie Albies had a Saturday for the ages, hitting the WBC’s first-ever walk-off home run to power his Team Netherlands to a win over Team Brazil to stay alive in the WBC.

  • I sympathize with the PxP guy there - these WBC games are frequently flipping back and forth between who is the home team and he forgot for a second that they were in the bottom half of the inning…but what a terrible time to make that mistake. He’s getting dragged across social media for it, because ultimately, you’ve gotta know the game situation there.

  • Team Netherlands’ loss to the Dominican Republic on Sunday eliminated them from advancing in the tournament, but they’ll finish pool play on Tuesday versus Team Israel before Albies and Chadwick Tromp return to North Port (although Tromp will be heading to minor league camp).

• Carlos Carrasco gets the home start on Monday against Joe Ryan and the Twins.

Roster Battle Tracker

Stock UP

James Karinchak. There are seemingly always reclamation projects that earn a major roster spot through a dominant spring training, and Karinchak might be ours this year. He threw a scoreless inning on Saturday, striking out the side on seventeen pitches (thirteen strikes). He led with the curveball, clearly wanting to get some work in on the breaking pitch, but finished with five whiffs in nine swings between it and a 20 IVB four-seamer. He’s quickly becoming the favorite for a middle relief spot on Opening Day, although I don’t know who will be the victim of his comeback.

Stock DOWN

Bryce Elder’s still going to make the Opening Day roster, more than likely, but he might not be long for the rotation if the slip-ups like today keep happening. JR Ritchie and now Didier Fuentes both look like they’ll be pitching at the major league level in 2026, and once/if Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep both return, there might not be a rotation spot left for Elder if he keeps intermixing his quality starts with control-challenged blowups like today.

Observation of the Day

Payamps follows Fuentes in not only making a late debut during spring but also throwing gas once he finally gets into a game. Payamps was always an upside play by Atlanta, with manager Walt Weiss discussing the former Milwaukee set-up man in a late February media availability. “He’s a guy that’s done it before and had success and been in the biggest part of big games, and those guys are hard to find in the bullpen.” At just $2.25M this season and with one additional year of team control, Atlanta’s hopeful that he’ll find success early and often this year, too.

Tomorrow’s watch list

The Braves have seemingly made Mauricio Dubón the leadoff man while Ronald is at the WBC - can the top of the order generate the same type of magic behind him that they did with Acuña leading off?

Also, when are we going to see JR Ritchie pitch again? He last appeared in an official game on February 27th, following Chris Sale, but had to be kept in big league camp rather than sent down with his fellow pitching prospects for a reason, right?