The North Port Report: Double Barrel Action on Spring's Only Split Squad Day
Here's everything you need to know from Braves Spring Training in North Port, FL from 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.
Here’s what stood out today
Atlanta went with a mostly MLB lineup at home versus the Rays while sending mostly backups and minor leaguers to Ft. Myers t o take on the Twins.
At home, Reynaldo López was the starting pitcher, going three innings with one hit and one walk, striking out three. He was sitting in the low-90s with his fastball (as is normal early in spring - don’t worry about this) and spent the day working on some secondaries. He threw five changeups, six curveballs, and eleven sliders, getting a combined six whiffs on twelve swings on them. It was a mostly MLB bullpen behind him, with Tyler Kinley, Dylan Lee, and Dylan Dodd all taking an inning. Kinley gave up a solo shot to catcher Nick Fortes, but on a 2-2 fastball that was well above the zone. Dodd, however, ran a sinker to the top of the zone to Yandy Diaz and hung a slider to Jacob Melton, with both mistakes being hit out by the Rays.
For the offense in that game, Austin Riley hit a solo homer off of big leaguer Cole Susler, while Michael Harris had a bases-loaded single that scored two off of minor-leaguer Trevor Martin.
The road matchup featured Grant Holmes and prospect Garrett Baumann on the mound. Holmes was pulled after 46 pitches despite not having finished the third inning, but it’s likely that was a pitch count situation - he had just gotten a strikeout, and there was no one on base when the change was made. Holmes allowed one hit and walked one while striking out two, featuring his improved four-seamer and no more than 20% usage of anything else. He did fire off five of that newer kick-change, averaging over 88 mph on it. It’s a pitch he added last spring and rarely used last season, but Holmes recently said he was working to get more consistent and confident in it so he could be a standard piece of his arsenal going forward. Baumann got two full innings in, allowing two runs to score on three hits. It’s worth pointing out that both runners scored against a reliever; Baumann was lifted in his third inning of work after facing three batters and allowing two singles and a HBP to load the bases without recording an out.
The starting offense didn’t do much outside of a Brewer Hicklen solo homer in the top of the 5th and a Luis Gil solo homer in the 8th (110 mph on a LINE), with the game ending in a 2-2 tie.
Quick Hits
Manager Walt Weiss said that Hurston Waldrep’s surgery for loose bodies was successful, with everything going as expected. There is no official timetable for his return to play, but as the AJC’s Ken Sugiura reports, pitchers with similar procedures have returned in three to four months.
It’s also Hurston Waldrep’s birthday, with the righthander turning 24 today.
The first official roster moves of camp are in, and three WBC participants got the boot out of camp. C Chadwick Tromp (Netherlands) and RHP Javy Guerra (Panama) were reassigned to minor league camp, while INF Nacho Alvarez (Mexico) was optioned to Triple-A. RHP Hunter Stratton, who is not playing in the WBC but has given up six runs on six hits (one homer) in his first 1.1 innings of spring, was also optioned to Gwinnett. The spring training roster is now at 62.
Bryce Elder gets the road start tomorrow in Lakeland, facing off with Framber Valdez of the Detroit Tigers at 1:05 PM ET. It’s a national broadcast on ESPN, so you may want the Atlanta Braves Radio Network cued up and ready to go.
Roster Battle Tracker
Stock UP
Hayden Harris. The lefty sidearmer picked up six whiffs in fourteen swings today, including two in five swings on his four-seamer. The added velocity - he averaged 92.7 mph today when he was sitting at 91 and change last year - is helping the exceptional shape miss more bats than it did last year. Combined with the rare combination of a sweeper and a splitter, he’ll get some major league time this year and is legitimately an option to step into 2027’s vacant ‘2nd lefty in the pen’ spot after Aaron Bummer departs in free agency.
Stock DOWN
Aaron Schunk. Starting at second base on the road today, the Atlanta-area native went 0-2 with two punchouts today and has no walks and four strikeouts in ten spring training at-bats. With the last bench spot candidates Ben Gamel (4-11 w/ three homers) and Kyle Farmer (5-12, RBI) both swinging a hot stick at the moment, Schunk’s already in danger of being in the team’s next wave of cuts.
Observation of the Day
The best part of split-squad games is all of the prospects that get late run in the two matchups. 2025 draftee Cody Miller played second base in Ft. Myers, going 1-2 with two batted balls over 100 mph, while 2025 international free agent Diego Tornes played centerfield at home. He saw three high-90s fastballs and two hard sliders from Tampa Bay reliever Hunter Bigge, drawing a two-out walk in the 7th inning.
Among the arms that we saw for the first time in spring because of the split squad were flamethrowing youngster Rolddy Muñoz (0.2 IP, 3BB) and starting pitching prospect Ian Mejia, who took a blown save after allowing two sacrifice flies to score two of the runners he inherited from Baumann.
Tomorrow’s watch list
Will they finally let Luis Gil play shortstop? He was the DH today in Ft. Myers, and so far, I think we’ve only seen him play one game at shortstop despite the youngster getting into eight games at this point.