Braves Prospect Mows Down Yankees Bats In First Spring Start

Didier Fuentes looked electric again when he took the mound for the Atlanta Braves against the New York Yankees. He tossed three perfect innings, punching out five batters on the day.

He attacked the strikezone with the fastball and showed the sweep off the plate a couple times to sit down hitters. An ABS challenge went his way, too. He caught the strike zone at the knees with a fastball, and a challenge Yankees DH Ernesto Martinez was upheld for the fifth punch out of the day.

On the season, he has nine strikeouts through five innings of work. He hasn't allowed an earned run or a hit. The lone baserunner was a hit-by-pitch, which came on the first batter of the spring he faced. Since then, he's been perfect.

While he didn't see the heaviest hitters in the lineup, such as Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton, Fuentes faced multiple major league bats. It was certainly a stronger lineup than when he faced the Orioles.

Some of the hitters he struck out included Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger and Ryan McMahon. Not even a year ago, he struggled against much lesser bats.

Fuentes has already been thrown to the wolves once in his career. However, he still got a nice test on Friday. It was considered to have passed with flying colors.

This isn't a suggestion to rush him into the starting rotation. There is a risk of stunting what's coming along. However, it's clear he's confident, and he's made some strides since last season. Fuentes is much closer to being major league-ready.

He was called up midway through last season as the Braves' injury woes piled up. He made four starts, allowing 20 earned runs over 13 combined innings (13.85 ERA). A major killer was the six home runs he allowed. He just wasn't ready, and he needs the time to develop properly. This outing makes for a good stepping stone.

After he was sent back down to Triple-A, he made a handful of starts before seeing his season end due to a shoulder injury. For what it was worth, he was starting to settle in at that level at the time of his injury. In his final two starts, he allowed an earned run over 11 innings pitched.

He's 20 years old. He's got the time to develop much further. Even if he were not to see the majors again for two more seasons, and he probably doesn't need that much time, he'd still be pretty young when he gets called up.

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