Didier Fuentes made his much-anticipated return to the majors on Wednesday, but if you blinked, you might have missed it.
Okay, fine, three innings and then an immediate demotion is technically longer than it takes to blink, but for our purposes, the metaphor works. The Braves needed an arm who could provide some depth alongside Martin Perez on Wednesday after Reynaldo Lopez made it through just one inning, and Fuentes ended up getting a surprise start against the Nationals … where he didn’t look great, to be honest.
The stuff looked good, to be fair – he sat at 97 mph with his four-seamer and generated eight whiffs with it, while his slider got six whiffs on 10 swings. He missed a bunch of bats, and that seems to be something we can expect from Fuentes whenever he’s pitching. But the stuff doesn’t look overwhelmingly dominant, and I don’t think we’re dealing with a rookie-year Spencer Strider situation where he’s likely to be an absolute superstar as soon as he gets a real opportunity. The arsenal remains pretty limited – he threw some splitters, exclusively to lefties, but that isn’t a great pitch for him yet.
And the execution was really lacking. Fuentes did a decent job of pounding the zone, but I didn’t think he commanded well inside of the zone, and he got hit hard as a result, giving up a 95.7 mph average exit velocity, leading to seven hits and four earned runs in just three innings. And it wasn’t a short outing by design, necessarily; Fuentes just labored through those three innings, needing 74 pitches.
Add it all up, and Fuentes still looks like a work in progress to my eyes. The stuff is good, but I’m not quite sure it’s great yet, and the various pitching models out there seem to agree: TJStats had him with a 104 Stuff+ rating; PitcherList’s PLV metric gave his stuff a “B” rating. That’s not bad – my parents would have been thrilled if I could manage a consistent “B” grade in school – but it doesn’t scream “burgeoning ace,” either. Fuentes is still extremely young, still just 20 for another month-plus, so there’s plenty of room for growth. But seeing as he was sent right back down to Triple-A after this outing, I don’t necessarily think he’s a must-stash player in Fantasy.
And the same is probably true for the Braves’ other top pitching prospect, JR Ritchie, who is getting the call for his MLB debut Thursday. Ritchie is plenty exciting in his own right, of course; he doesn’t necessarily have the same electricity in his arm, but at 23, he’s probably a bit more polished and certainly has a deeper arsenal. I’m excited to watch him pitch against big-leaguers after putting up a 2.38 ERA in his first 16 Triple-A starts dating back to last season.
But his 25.4% strikeout rate is merely good, not great, and his 11.4% walk rate is a few grades below “good” at this point. I think Ritchie is an interesting pitching prospect despite those flaws, and if I thought he was going to stick around in the Braves rotation, I’d be suggesting you go out and add him in most leagues.
But unless Lopez is dealing with an as-yet-unreported injury or the Braves are planning to transition to a six-man rotation, I think this is probably going to end up being a quick cameo for Ritchie. Why is that? Well, even if the Braves want to pull Perez from the rotation, Spencer Strider seems set to make his return to the rotation next week after one more tune-up at Triple-A this weekend. I wrote about the positive signs Strider showed in his most recent rehab start, and he’s likely to slot back into the rotation by next weekend.
That could give either Ritchie or Fuentes a chance to make another start after this week, and anything could happen between then and now; Ritchie could be so dominant Thursday that he makes himself indispensable, or another pitcher could go down with an injury before Strider is back. A wiser man than myself once said, “Life finds a way,” after all. But based on what we can project right now, it just doesn’t seem like there’s an opportunity for either Fuentes or Ritchie to stick around.
That opportunity will come, for both, I presume. But right now, neither Fuentes nor Ritchie looks like they need to be added in most Fantasy leagues. Not yet, anyway.
Here’s what else you need to know about from Wednesday’s action around MLB:
Thursday’s top waiver-wire targets
Here’s who we’re looking to add coming out of Wednesday’s action:
Daylen Lile, OF, Nationals (72%) – Lile has his limitations as a player. Despite being a great athlete, he’s been a pretty lousy base-runner in his MLB career, and seems like a pretty limited defensive player, too. But I’m telling you, this dude can hit. It’s been a pretty underwhelming start to the season, but after homers in three of his past five games, including Wednesday, he’s up to a .282/.333/.437 line for the season. And I don’t think it’s a fluke; he has a .303 xBA (.302 last season) and .350 xwOBA (.348 last season), both of which are very strong numbers. He makes a lot of contact and has enough pop that I think something like 20 homers isn’t out of the question. Lile isn’t quite as extreme a contact hitter as someone like Steven Kwan, but I think he might have more juice in his bat to make up for it, and the overall production could be quite similar. And Kwan is pretty much a must-start player in all formats. I don’t think Lile is far from that.
Enyel De Los Santos, RP, Astros (17%) – I think De Los Santos might be the closer now. He got saves on back-to-back days last week, and after Brian King gave up runs in each of his previous two outings, it was De Los Santos who they turned to Wednesday for a four-out save. King still has a high-leverage role, and maybe Bryan Abreu may right the ship and take the job that was supposed to be his. But right now, De Los Santos has been the best pitcher in the Astros pen and looks like the guy to roster while Josh Hader remains on the mend.
Anthony Volpe, SS, Yankees (25%) – I was never a huge believer in Volpe as a potential superstar, but even I have to admit there are some skills here. He had 21 homers and 24 steals as a rookie, and in his second season, he traded some pop for some batting average and still wound up hitting 12 homers and stealing 28 bags. His numbers were worse with the exception of power in 2025, but I think the shoulder injury he was playing through explains much of why he was worse (and his defense reflected that, too). Something like a 15-20 homer pace and 25 steals with a .250-ish batting average could be within the higher end of the range of possible outcomes for Volpe, and most category leagues can find a spot for a guy like that.
Josh Jung, 3B, Rangers (46%) – I was once a big believer in Jung, and maybe after all the injuries, he’s back to being a potential difference maker. I’m skeptical, but there are reasons to be optimistic, beginning with a career-low 17.5% strikeout rate, backed up by broadly improved contact skills. And he’s doing that while putting up a 91.4 mph average exit velocity, and .399 expected wOBA on contact, both his best marks since 2023, when he had 23 homers in just 122 games. He’s now homered three times in his past six games, and with the state of third base remaining weak, why not check in and see if he can keep this hot streak going?
Braxton Garrett, SP, Marlins (6%) – With how much everyone has been clamoring for the Marlins to call up Robby Snelling, I think Garrett is being overlooked. Which is a shame, because when the time comes for the Marlins to make the call, it’s likely to be Garrett, not Snelling, just by virtue of his spot on the 40-man roster. But it might not just be by default, either. Garrett has a track record of success at the MLB level, putting up a 3.63 ERA (3.64 FIP) between 2022 and 2023, and he’s actually throwing about 1 mph harder this season than he was before he had Tommy John surgery in 2024. And he’s overwhelming hitters down at Triple-A right now, tossing a rare no-hitter loss Tuesday and sporting a 0.77 ERA and 27% strikeout rate. There isn’t an obvious spot in the Marlins rotation right now, but it’s also fair to wonder how long they can continue to stomach Chris Paddack‘s struggles even as he is the third-highest-paid player on the team.
Peter Lambert, SP, Astros (3%) – There might be something here with Lambert, who has struck out 16 batters in 11 innings across his first two starts with the Astros. There isn’t much in his track record to back it up, but Lambert’s stuff looks better than you’d expect for a guy who would fairly qualify as a journeyman at this point. His four-seamer comes in at 95 mph plus, and his changeup, cutter, and slider all generated at least three whiffs Wednesday after missing bats in his first start. Again, the track record suggests this probably isn’t going to last, and the upcoming schedule sees him take on the Orioles and then likely the Dodgers, so that’s only one matchup where you might be willing to use him. But in AL-only leagues and maybe some deeper 15-teamers, Lambert is showing enough to at least be worth a look.
Wednesday’s standouts
Max Fried, Yankees @BOS: 8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K – I saw an interesting detail from this start: Fried stopped pitching out of the windup midway through and said after the start, he has been struggling to repeat his mechanics out of the windup. Sure enough, his walk rate entering the start was 9.3% with the bases empty, while he hadn’t issued a single walk with runners on base. Not that it’s really affected his pitching much, but it was also nice to see Fried get a bunch of strikeouts after that dipped. He’s awesome.
Logan Gilbert, Mariners vs. ATH: 4 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – I remain mostly unconcerned here with Gilbert, but I do wonder if the reintroduction of that cutter of his isn’t causing more problems than it’s worth. It doesn’t look like a bad pitch in and of itself, but it’s getting hit hard and not really generating many whiffs right now, and it’s not like his arsenal was exactly screaming for a new pitch. The new changeup has gotten better results, but again, it just seems like added complexity for complexity’s sake rather than filling a specific gap in Gilbert’s arsenal. It’ll probably be fine, but this could be the kind of tinkering that gets a pitcher just a little off his game. That’s what he has been so far.
Jose Soriano, Angels vs. TOR: 5 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K – Even the less impressive starts are still pretty good, and most importantly, still feature very good control and lots of whiffs. Soriano is a sell-high candidate in the strictest meaning of the word, in that he is not going to continue to pitch to a sub-1.00 ERA. But it’s a lot harder to believe he’s going to go back to being a 4.00-plus ERA guy. And he might be more like a low-3.00s ERA guy now.
Braxton Ashcraft, Pirates @TEX: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K – The combination of the slider and curveball racking up whiffs (eight of 14 here) and the four-seamers filling up the zone has worked well so far. He generates a decent amount of weak contact with the four-seamer, and while the sinker gets hit hard sometimes, it does its job of keeping the ball down and generating early outs. The very good control is in line with what he was doing for much of his minor-league career, and a strikeout rate right around one per inning doesn’t seem unreasonable. There are some mild concerns about platoon-heavy lineups, I suppose, but Ashcraft looks pretty legit right now, at least as a mid-3.00s ERA breakout.
Ranger Suarez, Red Sox vs. NYY: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – What’s tough about Suarez is, it’s often hard to tell why things are going well or not for him. He doesn’t typically have big changes in his arsenal, velocity, or movement profiles. It usually just comes down to “is he executing or not?” Which is frustrating, because it’s true of every pitcher, but it’s more true of Suarez than most, because he relies so heavily on finely tuned command more than overwhelming stuff. But it’s also the kind of thing that tends to turn on a dime, which makes it hard to ever give up on him. I wouldn’t, despite the underwhelming start to his Red Sox career.
Tanner Bibee, Guardians vs. HOU: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – Good start against a tough matchup. I still don’t think it fundamentally changes the story about Bibee, which is that he’s just a matchup-dependent pitcher now. That doesn’t mean you have to drop him, but it also doesn’t mean you have to hold on to him if something more interesting comes along. If we get word that Payton Tolle is going to stick around in Boston’s rotation, I think I’d be fine dropping Bibee for him.
Casey Mize, Tigers vs. MIL: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K – Mize more or less looks like the same guy as always. He’s actually lost about 1.3 mph on his four-seamer this season, but it is generating more whiffs than it did a year ago. Go figure. I think he’s just a pretty good pitcher, someone I expect a mid-to-high-3.00s ERA and a decent enough WHIP to not harm you. His 2.51 ERA to date doesn’t change that for me.
Matthew Boyd, Cubs vs. PHI: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K – For a first start back from the IL, it’s hard to complain. It would’ve been nice to get that last out and get the win, though.
Janson Junk, Marlins vs. STL: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K – You might notice Junk was pulled after 56 pitches despite his success. I didn’t see any reason to think this was anything other than the Marlins being overly cautious about exposing him to the third time through the lineup penalty. That’s frustrating on a day when he was clearly cruising, but it does speak to how Miami views Junk, and it’s probably how you should view him: A potentially useful pitcher, but not a great one.
Clay Holmes, Mets vs. MIN: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K – Given how Holmes’ season eventually fell apart and the lack of strikeouts so far, this feels pretty easy to dismiss. Again, he can be useful against the right matchups, but I think he’s a fringe-y starter even in a two-start week against the Angels and Nationals.
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