The North Port Report: Atlanta Experiments With New Roles

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

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 mid-March. The games may not count yet, but the information does.

Here’s what stood out today

The Braves blasted the Rays 11-2 in a game that featured just about everything you could have asked for if you were looking for hope for Opening Day in less than two weeks.

On the offensive side, Drake Baldwin homered and doubled, driving in four and putting all three batted balls in play at exit velocities over 100 mph. Per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, 20 of his 23 batted balls in spring have been hard-hit balls (95 mph or harder) and 12 of the 23 have been over 100 mph.

Outside of Baldwin, Eli White had two hits (including a homer), as did DH Mike Yastrzemski and left fielder Mauricio Dubón. Walt Weiss said after the game that he wanted to get Dubón at least one start in left before spring training ended, as it is likely that’s a role he’ll be playing against lefties once Ha-Seong Kim returns to the lineup at shortstop. Jorge Mateo got the start at short in Dubón’s stead, going 1-1 with an RBI.

On the pitching side, Chris Sale showed that he’s on the glide path for Opening Day. He allowed one run on a solo shot from catcher Nick Fortes, otherwise striking out three in his six innings with no walks. Throwing 75 pitches (53 for strikes), it was an eight whiff and 27% CSW day for Sale.

Raisel Iglesias struggled in his one inning of work, getting two punchouts but allowing one run on three hits before Tyler LaPorte took over to get the final out of the 7th. The hits were all softly-hit singles, with Chandler Simpson getting on, stealing second, and then scoring. It’s likely Iglesias was pulled for pitch count reasons, as he had thrown 21 pitches after logging his second strikeout, rather than ineffectiveness.

Aaron Bummer and Ian Hamilton pitched the final two innings, with Bummer walking one and Hamilton allowing one hit. As this was only Hamilton’s second appearance of the spring (and first since late February), it’s not only possible but likely that he’s not on the Opening Day roster and catches a short IL stint to begin the year.

Quick Hits

• Today was the debut of BravesVision and the reviews were…mixed. The logo in the top-right corner is translucent, so it sometimes gets lost if the background isn’t green grass, while the audio was spotty at times, but the scorebug is actually nicer, if you ask me. I wasn’t a big fan of the Bally/FanDuel scorebug, but this one seems smaller and less obtrusive.

• Ha-Seong Kim has returned to Braves camp after his time at the World Baseball Classic with Team Korea. While he has yet to start swinging a bat, he’s been running and can even do some light throwing drills…without throwing, of course.

  • “I feel very sorry to the team because of what's happened and how I'm impacting the team,” Kim said through an interpreter. “But I'll try my best to recover as fast as I can and help the team.”

• Atlanta made some more roster moves today, reassigning infielder Aaron Schunk and outfielder Brewer Hicklen to minor league camp. The roster is now at 43 active players, a distinction that accounts for the pending suspension of Jurickson Profar.

• On Tuesday, Spencer Strider is hanging back at Braves camp to throw against his teammates in a simulated game while Reynaldo López makes the trip to JetBlue Park in Ft. Myers to take on the Boston Red Sox.

Roster Battle Tracker

Stock UP

Eli White. With a vacancy in the outfield thanks to a PED suspension, “Elite White” looks to be making the first claim at expanded playing time. So far this spring, he’s gone 12-29 with six runs scored, four RBI, a homer, three doubles, and two stolen bases. Capable of Gold Glove-caliber defense anywhere in the outfield, to paraphrase Alex Anthopoulos from last year, there’s a possibility that White works himself into some sort of everyday role even with Yastrzemski capable of taking 75% of the left field at-bats. With Ronald Acuña Jr. destined for DH days to keep him fresh for October, there will be opportunities for White to spend time in both left and right as well as be the primary backup for Michael Harris II in centerfield.

Stock DOWN

Jorge Mateo, again. The shortstop, batting 9th, had an RBI sacrifice fly, a 75 mph single, and a stolen base today, but he’s so far been wholly unimpressive this spring in camp. Once penciled in for a roster spot as the backup shortstop, his lowly $1M guarantee and the prevalence of other potential backups at shortstop mean that he’s not a lock for the Opening Day roster. More on that tomorrow.

Observation of the Day

Watching baseball from a plane full of turbulence is not easy. I don’t have anything more eloquent or deeper than that for this section; it’s been a miserable day of travel for me. Multiple ground stops were called at Hartsfield International Airport today, delaying my trip home by almost six hours.

Tomorrow’s watch list

I am not worried at all, but I am curious to see where Reynaldo’s velocity is on his fastball tomorrow. He averaged 95.5 mph in 2024, but his first three spring training outings have been (in order) 91.5, 92, and 92.8. With probably only two outings left for him between now and his first scheduled start of the season (Sunday, March 29th is my guess), I’d love to see him sitting somewhere around 94 tomorrow to feel like he’ll have what he needs versus Kansas City.