Braves News: JR Ritchie called up, Didier Fuentes starts, more

NORTH PORT, FL- FEBRUARY 22: JR Ritchie #92 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during a spring training game against the Minnesota Twins on February 22, 2026 at CoolToday Park in North Port, Florida. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) | Getty Images Well it has rapidly turned into prospect week for the Braves’ rotation, as a 1. 0 inning Reynaldo Lopez start on Tuesday in the middle of a stretch of 10 games straight sent the Braves’ pitching into a scramble to cover innings.

An up and down 3. 0 inning start from Didier Fuentes resulted in Thursday’s scheduled starter Martin Perez being burnt to cover another 3. 0 innings.

Fuentes was probably better than his line would indicate, as he got a bit unlucky with some BABIP, while striking out 7 batters across 3. 0 innings and generated 15 whiffs on 74 pitches. That said, he was not as his best, particularly in the first inning.

So that leaves us with JR Ritchie making his MLB debut on Thursday as a consensus top 100 prospect and top 2 prospect in the organization. Ritchie made a real push for a rotation spot in Spring Training and has been largely effective in AAA so far. Ritchie has a deep pitch mix and will be fun to watch on Thursday, as he can hopefully can provide some depth for a Braves team that desperately needs it.