Braves Plan to Use Fuentes as Long Reliever Before Triple-A Stint

Didier Fuentes learned he made the Atlanta Braves' Opening Day roster the way most 20-year-olds absorb big news: slowly, then all at once.

"They called me into the office and just started going over the plan and what they expected from me and how they wanted it to go," Fuentes said through an interpreter in North Port, Fla. "Eventually, they got to, 'Hey, you made the team.'"

The plan the Braves laid out is a specific one. Atlanta intends to use Fuentes as a long reliever for the season-opening stretch, which covers 13 consecutive days on the schedule, before optioning him to Triple-A Gwinnett to resume work as a starting pitcher. Manager Walt Weiss was direct about why the team needs him in that role right now.

"He can protect us those 13 straight days, because our bullpen is going to feel the brunt of that challenging stretch," Weiss said. "He can go four or five innings if we need him, but he'll have to go get built up after that. But like I said the other day, he's certainly made his point."

Fuentes has made his point emphatically. In nine spring training innings he has yet to surrender a hit, a run, or a walk, striking out 17 batters without issuing a single free pass. That performance stands in sharp contrast to his 2025 MLB debut, when Atlanta brought the right-hander up too quickly and he posted a 13.85 ERA across four starts, surrendering 20 runs and 23 hits in 13 big-league innings. He had 12 strikeouts and six walks in that stint before being sent back to Gwinnett.

The Braves' caution about his development is grounded in the numbers. Despite entering 2026 as the organization's No. 3 prospect on MLB Pipeline, Fuentes has totaled just 174 2/3 innings across 45 professional starts. There is still work to do on his secondary pitches and overall command of an at-bat, and the organization is also managing the aftermath of a right shoulder discomfort issue that shut him down late last season.

The blueprint for this kind of move has a recent precedent in Atlanta. Spencer Strider had just 22 minor-league appearances before being called up as a reliever in 2021, then made 11 bullpen appearances to open 2022 before shifting to the rotation and dominating. Analysts who cover the Braves have noted the parallel directly, with the caveat that matching Strider's subsequent trajectory is far from guaranteed.

With Raisel Iglesias and Robert Suarez handling late-game duties and left-handers Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer filling out the middle innings, Fuentes gives Atlanta a genuine multi-inning weapon during the most schedule-compressed stretch of the spring-to-regular-season transition. Once those 13 days are done and the Braves' rotation arms have built their pitch counts back up, Gwinnett gets its most intriguing starter back.