The North Port Report: Bryce Elder and Joey Wentz Look Solid in Road Matchup

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 February. The games may not count yet, but the information does.

Here’s what stood out today

Bryce Elder and Joey Wentz both went three innings on the road in Lakeland, and the results were fantastic.

Elder gave the Braves three scoreless innings, allowing three hits while striking one. It was a typical Elder outing - he allowed eight balls to be put into play and several of them were hard-hit, but he buckled down and got out of all of those situations thanks to two double-play ground balls and a Jonah Heim pickoff at second base.

Wentz followed with three scoreless of his own that were arguably even better - no hits and three strikeouts, albeit with two walks. The big lefty’s stuff was more impressive than Elder’s, touching 96.1 on his four-seamer with an absurd 21 inches of induced vertical break. Plugging in both of those, along with Wentz’s fantastic extension of over 7 feet, the perceived velocity for Wentz on that pitch was 97.9 mph. While Wentz failed to get a whiff on his nine combined curveballs and changeups, he also wasn’t throwing them in the strike zone and only got three swings in total on the pairing. I’m still high on his stuff this year, especially when you combine it with his new two-seamer (which I don’t think we saw on Monday).

Prospect Owen Murphy took two innings and allowed just a single run to score, coming on a solo shot from Tigers prospect Brett Callahan. Outside of that, he walked only one and struck out three, with two of those looking. Murphy stuck to a four-seam fastball-heavy approach, throwing 17 in his 32 pitches, while prioritizing the slider to righties and the curveball to lefties. I’m still looking for more whiffs from the overall package - he had just four in 14 swings - but Murphy also added seven called strikes for a more than respectable 34% CSW.

On the offensive front, Atlanta’s outfielders continue to power the offense on these road trips. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. hit his first homer of spring, an opposite-field shot to left off of former first overall pick Casey Mize. Brewer Hicklen, José Azocar, and Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. picked up four more of Atlanta’s nine hits in the contest, with Hicklen and John Gil both stealing bases. Utilityman Cal Conley, who came in late to cover second base, had two hits and drove in two runs, one each in the 7th and 9th innings.

Quick Hits

• Another spring training game in the books for John Gil without playing shortstop. The youngster was in the starting lineup for the second straight day, but as the designated hitter. He’s now gotten into nine different contests, but played only a grand total of four innings at shortstop. Hopefully, they’re convinced he’s MLB-caliber with the glove already and prioritizing live looks at lesser defenders.

• The Braves are off tomorrow, but the matchup on Thursday in North Port for the ‘Alex Anthopoulos Bowl’ (Braves vs Blue Jays) looks to be Chris Sale versus Dylan Cease.

Roster Battle Tracker

Stock UP

Brett Wisely. The veteran utilityman is now 3-11 in spring, having scored two runs and driven in one. The battle for the final bench spot between him, the less-defensively-versatile-but-better-hitting Kyle Farmer, and the mashing outfield Ben Gamel is quickly becoming my favorite thing to watch in these ‘B’ lineup games.

Stock DOWN

Jonah Heim. He’s still going to make the Opening Day roster on account of his defense and high-floor (and his contract, being guaranteed $1.25M this season), but he’s going through it at the plate this spring. The switch-hitting veteran is now 1-12 in spring training, having hit one double last week but otherwise striking out three times against only one walk. Just not great at-bats, for the most part.

Observation of the Day

If Joey Wentz can consistently throw 96 with over seven feet of extension and 21 inches of induced vertical break, it helps explain why Alex Anthopoulos didn’t feel the need to go out and add a backend starter this winter. That’s a package that can absolutely play as a #5/#6 starter.

Tomorrow’s watch list

It’s the first off day of spring training, so there won’t be a Tuesday edition of The North Port Report. Instead, we’re going to run an updated Opening Day roster projection now that cuts are starting to be made from big league camp.