A Key Trait of Didier Fuentes That's Stood out to the Braves

Didier Fuentes was wheeling and dealing again for the Atlanta Braves out of the bullpen on Thursday night. Another scoreless outing in the books. He got four outs for the Braves while allowing a single baserunner on a hit and picking up a punchout.

Since moving the Braves' bullpen in late April, he's allowed just two earned runs and has a 0.88 WHIP across 17 innings pitched. While there are a few facets of his game that have allowed 20-year-old righty to establish him in the majors, one trait immediately stood out to the veteran Chris Sale.

"I think just his poise, you know? He's a young man, and being able to come in big situations, multiple innings and he's kind of like a swiss army knife."

He's covered as many as three innings in the middle of a game. Fuentes has been tasked with coming and getting the final out of an inning when there's a jam. With each situation, he's stood tall and gotten the job done.

"He's in a role that he hasn't probably ever done in his life," manager Walt Weiss said. "And he's doing it at the major league level."

That poise and confidence likely also comes from how much he's honed his craft, particularly with the seconary pitches. While the backbone of his arsenal is the four-seam fastball, his slider has arguably been his best pitch.

Hitters are batting .063 with a .191 slugging against it. It has a 36.2% whiff rate, and its 24.5% putaway rate is by far the best among his three pitches, the unmentioned one being his splitter.

Fuentes has used the splitter exclusively against left-handed hitters, and it has allowed him to be more effective against them. Lefties give him a harder time, relative to right-handers.

While he owns same-handed hitters, seeing them bat .158 with a .434 OPS against him, the opposite-handed hitters are batting .229 with a .642 OPS against him. Still respectable, but there's a notable difference in the splits.

When shown the splitter, lefties are batting and slugging .143. It's a bit of an equalizier.

Weiss has said that Fuentes mastering his secondary pitches would be key to the next step in his development. So far, he appears to be taking care of that task.

That being said, while the top slashlines are seen when reviewing the secondary stuff, that doesn't meen his fastball hasn't become more effective. It's and bounds better.

Here are splits on his fastball from when he was thrown into the fire last season compared to his season a whole:

2025: .486 avg, .886 slugging
2026: .238 avg, .317 slugging

It's night and day. For good measure, his velocity is up too from an already solid 96 mph to 97 mph. On Thursday night, one of his fastballs hit 99.9 mph on the radar gun.

"Just pure electricity coming out of that right arm," Sale said.

Last season, he just wasn't ready yet. But that belief that he can be major league never left him. He took the mound, dazzled in spring training, and with an exception or two has impressed since.

One day, he'll be a member of the rotation. But for now, he's riding high in the bullpen, doing his part. That's what's clicking right now. No need to fix something that isn't broken.

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