Who Is JR Ritchie? What to Know About the Braves’ Latest Call-Up

Why he’s up now, what he throws, and what to expect when he takes the mound

The Braves are calling up another arm.

Whenever that happens, a few questions matter: what does he throw, how did he get here, and what should we reasonably expect right now?

Let’s take a quick look at JR Ritchie before he gets the ball this afternoon.

Who is JR Ritchie?

One of Atlanta’s two first-round picks (#35 overall) in 2022, Ritchie comes from the prep ranks of Washington State. He immediately jumped into professional competition that year, throwing to a 1.88 ERA in 14.1 post-draft innings and then starting 2023 at Single-A Augusta before going down for Tommy John surgery.

After returning from TJ in 2024 and rebuilding in the lower minors, he surged last season all the way through the system and spent the back half of the year in Triple-A Gwinnett. Ritchie’s 140 innings last season were a top-fifteen mark in the minors, and he started the Futures Game at Truist Park on behalf of the National League squad.

Why is he up now?

The Braves have simply burned through all of their pitching options in the last few days.

Already down four starters heading into the season after spring training injuries to Spencer Schwellenbach (elbow), Hurston Waldrep (elbow), Joey Wentz (torn ACL), and Spencer Strider (oblique), Atlanta has cycled six different starters through their five spots. But in the last few days, they’ve used all their depth ahead of schedule because of shortened outings from their starters - Didier Fuentes went just three innings last night, forcing starter Martín Pérez into the game behind him, and that came one night after José Suarez had to cover three innings after Reynaldo López couldn’t record an out in the 2nd inning before exiting.

Pitching the equivalent of two bullpen games in back-to-back days meant that Atlanta needed to go down into the minors for a player, and they chose Ritchie.

What does he bring to the mound?

Ritchie might be the most prepared pitching prospect to come up and immediately survive in the majors, if not thrive. The youngster throws six pitches, including all three fastball options in a four-seamer, a sinker, and a cutter.

The four-seamer has below-average shape¹ and slightly below-average velocity at 93.8 mph, but it’s still resulted in a 25% whiff rate in Triple-A to this point. It’s supported by a 93.3 mph sinker that can rack up the groundballs and a 90.4 mph cutter, which looks like a slider out of the hand and can help bridge between the fastballs and some of his breaking balls.

Ritchie also throws a pair of breaking balls, one designed to move horizontally and one vertically. His sweeper, a variation of a slider that sacrifices drop for additional horizontal movement, moves towards the glove side during its flight to the plate - for a lefty, the pitch comes in towards them, while it moves away from a righty. His curveball has a lot more vertical break, although it still has some quality horizontal movement to it as well. The curveball is his best pitch to miss bats, generating a swing and a miss (a ‘whiff’) over 58% of the time so far in Triple-A.

Ritchie also throws a changeup, with it actually being his second-most-used pitch. It averages 86.8 mph, sitting between the slower low-80s velocity of his breaking balls and his low-90s fastballs. It has a similar movement profile to his sinker, with about 7 mph less velocity, and pairs well with it.

What’s working right now

Ritchie’s performance in the minors so far this year has been stellar, with a 0.99 ERA in his first five starts for Gwinnett this season and recording more strikeouts (28) than innings pitched (27.1). Ritchie has allowed one earned run across his last four outings, currently carrying a 13-inning scoreless streak.

The reason he’s prepared for this call-up and debut is his ability to generate weak contact on the ground. He’s running a 50% groundball rate in Gwinnett so far this season, a mark that would put him in the top 100 among the 377 major league pitchers that qualify for leaderboards this season.

What’s the concern

If there’s one area to question his preparedness, it showed up in his spring training results: the ability to get big leaguers to swing and miss.

Ritchie got a start against a mostly complete Toronto Blue Jays lineup on March 10th and finished with just two strikeouts in four innings of work, walking four and being tagged for two runs. He was able to hold his own thanks to inducing groundballs - five of the six outs in play came on the ground - but he also allowed four batted balls of 100 mph or harder, all in the air.

There’s a big difference in facing Triple-A hitters in Memphis or Nashville and a Washington Nationals offense that’s already scored 26 runs on Atlanta across the first three games of the series.

What should we expect?

The best-case scenario is that Ritchie comes out and shuts down the Nationals lineup between early fastballs for strikes to get ahead, curveballs and sweepers to put away hitters, and changeups and sinkers to generate groundballs if he’s behind in the count. There’s a path to six innings with two or three double plays turned by the Braves’ defense and four or five strikeouts from Ritchie.

But the more realistic outcome is a mixed bag - some groundouts and a few strikeouts, but also the occasional inability to put away some hitters when he gets to two strikes and a few runs on the board after five innings, especially if Washington can put a mistake pitch in the seats.

The Bigger Picture

Ritchie isn’t being called up because everything is perfectly polished.

He’s being called up because the Braves need innings, and he’s the arm in the system best equipped to give them a chance right now.

That’s an important distinction.

The pitch mix, the ability to generate groundballs, and the overall feel for sequencing give him a real shot to navigate a lineup. But the question isn’t whether he can survive one outing. It’s whether he can consistently miss enough bats to turn that survival into something more.

For now, this is about opportunity.

If he keeps the ball on the ground and limits damage, he can stick around longer than expected. If the swing-and-miss isn’t there, he probably settles into the same shuttle role the Braves have used all season.

Either way, this is how the next wave arrives.

Not always with perfect timing, but when the team needs them most.

1. 13.6 inches of induced vertical break (‘carry’), referring to the backspin that helps the pitch resist gravity. MLB average is roughly 16 inches, so his fastball shape is below average.