The North Port Report: The Regulars Crush Detroit Behind a Starter-Heavy Bullpen
Here's everything you need to know from Braves Spring Training in North Port, FL from Tuesday
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
Statcast went down very early in the outing, so much of what we have are observations instead of measurements. It’s spring training for Statcast, too.
Grant Holmes looked to be in midseason form - per the broadcast, he was sitting 94-95 and touched 96 mph in his two innings of work. In 2025, he averaged 4.5 on his fastball and threw exactly 18 heaters harder than 96.
Reynaldo López and Joey Wentz were both fine - López walked one and struck out two, while Wentz got a bit wild early (two walks and a run-scoring hit), but rebounded to finish with three strikeouts in his two innings. Owen Murphy was the last of Atlanta’s four starters to get into the game and conveniently, Statcast was back right before he entered the contest.
Murphy struck out two in his first inning of work and picked up another in his second. While he did give up some quality contact, with Tigers utilityman Trei Cruz ripping a 105 mph double to center, Murphy acquitted himself well. On the whole, he finished with three strikeouts and one hit with no walks. He averaged 92.2 mph on his fastball (touching 93.6), but with an absurd 19 inches of induced vertical break on his four-seamer. His curveball was averaging over 2500 RPM and looked really impressive, as well.
Also, Ray Kerr lives! We were genuinely starting to wonder what had happened to him, as there have been no updates ever since he went down for Tommy John surgery in 2024. But he pitched the 9th inning, albeit without any official statistics (per Gameday) since he pitched the bottom of the 9th for the home team, who was leading.
Offensively, Matt Olson hit a gargantuan home run - even without Statcast, you know it’s gone when the catcher’s asking for a new baseball before the runner leaves the batter’s box.
Mauricio Dubón finished with one hit and a run scored, but my big takeaway was how quick he is. He hit a routine groundball to third (as part of a twelve-pitch at-bat!) and almost beat the throw at first. Ozzie Albies and Mike Yastrzemski both had run-scoring doubles, coming with two outs, while Olson finished with two hits.
On the prospect side, John Gil had an impressive at-bat, expanding the zone early and fouling off an elevated fastball before then taking a chase slider down and three more of that same fastball for a 7th inning walk. Jim Jarvis singled on a low changeup and then stayed in to play second base (Gil replaced Jurickson Profar at DH), while Owen Carey replaced Ronald Acuña Jr. in right field but struck out twice.
Quick Hits
Michael Harris II drew a walk today, and that’s at least three different at-bats where he’s been patient enough to get to a three-ball count. If he can cut the chase rate down even 5%, look out.
Wednesday in North Port is a matchup between All-Stars, with Bryce Elder taking on Pirates ace Paul Skenes.
Chris Sale and Alex Anthopoulos both addressed the media after Sale’s contract extension was announced on Tuesday morning. More on that tomorrow.
Roster Battle Tracker
Stock UP
Owen Murphy might be more advanced than we were giving him credit for. While he’s likely pretty down the 2026 debut list, owing to his lack of innings after returning from Tommy John, a 2027 debut instead of the previous 2028 ETA we gave him is likely in the cards.
Stock DOWN
Brett Wisely got one at-bat in the game, being hit by a pitch and eventually replaced by Jim Jarvis. If he’s truly injured and it wasn’t for precautionary reasons, it could complicate his chances of making the Opening Day roster. The Braves did not update his status after the game.
Observation of the Day
I can’t help but wonder if there’s a connection to the BravesVision announcement and the timing of the Sale extension. The old TV deal, signed prior to Liberty Media purchasing the team in 2007, was seen as one of the worst TV deals from a revenue perspective in all of baseball.
While many franchises have taken a significant revenue haircut after moving from an RSN to league-produced and distributed streaming packages, the Braves clearly aren’t afraid to spend in the wake of the change.
Tomorrow’s watch list
With a second straight home game on tap, I’m curious to see which position players get in the game on back-to-back days and which arms they use after four different starting pitcher options covered two innings each on Tuesday.