Didier Fuentes Has Thrown a NO-HITTER Across Spring Training; #5 Starter? | Atlanta Braves Podcast

Dier Fuentes has thrown a no hitter in spring training. Let's talk about it. [music] [music] [music] Yes. Welcome on in to Braves Today, your source for news, notes, and updates on your Atlanta Braves. I'm your host, Lindseay Crosby, award-winning baseball writer and podcaster. You can follow me on social media at Crosby Baseball, and you can find all my written work, bravestoday.com. That's the Bravestoday Substack as this is both a podcast and a newsletter. We're proudly part of the Belief Podcast Network and presented to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app or go to fanduel.com to get started. We're going to talk about the spring breakout rosters. We're going to talk about the broadcast team being set and what we do and don't know about Braves vision for 2026, which the season starts next week. But before we do that, dear Fuentes, holy cow. So for those of you who missed it, and really if you missed it, the Northport report over on brave.com is a great way to keep up with it. We drop that every single day that there is a game, right? talking about what happened that day, roster moves, all of that stuff. There won't be one tonight because they're off today. But we talked about Deier Fuentes every time he pitches because it's been phenomenal. I don't know if you realize this, but Dier Fuentes has faced 27 batters this spring. He got an extra inning against Philly yesterday. Like Joel Pians was warming up. I think he had gone four and he came back out for his fifth, right? He's faced 27 batters. He's retired 26 of them. The only guy that he did not retire was Orioles minor leaguer Colin Yeaman. He hit him with a pitch and then they caught him stealing uh in the next at bat and that was the first batter he faced this spring. So Dier Fuentes from a certain point of view has retired 26 straight batters and he has not allowed a hit over 27 batters which is nine innings of work. He's pitched the equivalent of a complete game with no hits. Clearly no runs allowed and we're essentially at the point now like I talked about this on Monday I think in segment three of the show maybe about do you put him on the opening day roster and very clearly you can see the argument here. I'm not going to rehash all of the options you have right Jose Suarez versus Martin Perez versus Dier Fuentes versus J.R. Richie, right? Again, third segment on Monday, I went over all of that stuff. What I want to do instead is talk about if you put Fuentes on the opening day roster, either as the fifth or sixth starter, as a long man, whatever, what odds do, like could he be successful? Because there's reason to be optimistic and there's reason to worry. And I want to go over some of these things and discuss each side. The optimistic side is when you look at what he's doing, when you look at what he's throwing, these pitches are phenomenal. Okay, forcing fast ball. He's changed from last year's sweeper to a slider. We've seen a lot of Braves prospects test out a sweeper and then go back to the slider. Some of it was reluctantly AJ Smith Shaver tried a sweeper in the miners. From what I understand, the team pushed him to do it and he ended up going back to his original slider, but Fuentes has fully shifted from the sweeper to the slider. It's a harder, it's a gyro slider, very similar to what Spencer Strider throws. And we're going to talk about Strider a lot in this as a useful comparison to what Dior Fuentes is for the four seam fast ball. He's averaging 97 miles an hour on it this spring. It has average induced vertical break, right? It comes in 16 or so inches of induced vertical break, which again is average compared to a standard major league fast ball. But because of the low vertical approach angle, because of the low release point, it works really, really well up in the zone. The other part of this is that he has a lot of velocity capacity there. He's run it up to 99 miles an hour multiple times. Going here in the in the log, he's thrown 79 forcing fast balls this spring. Five of them have been rounded to 99 miles an hour. So Fuentes, he's getting a 42% whiff rate on this fast ball. It is. I feel pretty confident in saying right now the both the velocity, the at least average shape on it and the fact that he can control it. Like there are guys throwing harder in the organization. Jon Carlos Olara is pumping triple digits. Rody Reyes is pumping triple digits, but the fact that Dior Fuentes can actually throw a strike with it. This is probably the best fast ball in the system right now. might be the f one of the three best fast balls in the organization including the majors, right? Robert Suarez has similar velocity and all of that at the major league level. Uh but this is probably one of the three best fast balls in the entire organization and the best in the minor leagues right now on the team. That slider that he has with it again, he swapped over to that um to that gyro slider and then he's throwing a splitter. And I say he's throwing a splitter. He hasn't really used it a ton. He's thrown nine of them this spring in 117 117 total pitches thrown. It's important to point out he does not call this a splitter. He calls it a change up. It is listed. It's listed as a split finger on Statcast. I don't know if they're going to change it from a split finger to a change up. They move the sweeper to a slider because he's throwing something new. But when they do the pitch classifications, they really like to defer to what the pitcher himself calls it. He calls it a change up. Jeremy Hefner also calls it a change up. Um, and so I don't know if they're going to keep saying that it's a that they're going to keep listing it as a split a split finger, a splitter, or call it a change up. But either way, that's the third pitch. The shape. I love the shape of it. He just has to work on locations. Jeremy Hefner said the exact same thing. Like that's uh the quote from Jeremy Hefner, quote, "He has three above average pitches. The change up is still coming in terms of location, but the shape is really good. He's taken to this harder slider and the fast ball is real." Obviously, if you're saying that sounds a lot like Spencer Strider, you would be correct. 2022 Spencer Strider I think is the model here. He came up originally he was a like when he came up that year he came up as a reliever and then they put him into the rotation in May. And my question is and a lot of the public question is what Dier Fuentes is doing is this replicable at the major league level cuz so far in spring and it's 117 pitches. I know. So far in spring, he's at 67.5% for seam fastball, 24.8% slider, and 7.7% splitter. So 68% fastball usage. And if you look last year at starting pitchers that used one pitch more than 55% of the time. There was only seven in all of baseball that used a single pitch more than 55% of the time. And none of them got up to 67% usage. Right. Ryan Nelson 62% of a four seamer. They're all four seamers. Sean Maniah of the Mets at 61, Bowen Francis at 58, Ben Brown at 56, Mitchell Parker at 56, Jacob Miserowski at 55, Cam Schlitler at 55. Nobody I think is none of the elite pitchers in baseball, right? None of the best pitchers in baseball are leaning on a fast ball as much as Dier Fuentes has in spring. But again, I do think the Spencer Strider comparison is interesting here because when you go back to that 2022 season, if you're thinking that this could be some sort of in the bullpen and then move him into the rotation thing, Strider was actually using the fast ball even more than that to start the year. If you look at his pitch usage all the way through miday and you go kind of by game or by month, I think it's kind of a useful proxy is you go by month and you assume all the starts from June on, right? 68.8% 8% fastball usage in April, 75.5% in May, and then when he became a starter, he still never went below 63% the rest of the year. And you know, the real significant change for Strider was he did throw the slider a little bit more and he tailed off on the change up. The change up was as low as 2% at different times in 2022. So yes, if you have Dier Fuentes up to start 2026, he would be doing something that nobody did last year. But you have seen this exact thing work in Atlanta before. And I would argue that Fuentes's splitter, again, he called it a change up. it spin rates and everything. It reads as a splitter. I would argue that his splitter is better than the change up that Spencer Strider had that year. It really I really think you got to find a way to do this. You got to find a way to put him on the opening day roster. whether he is a starter, whether he is a long man out of the pin, maybe it's something where you're using him, you plan to use him as a spot starter in the first two weeks and then shift him into a long man role. I don't really know. I don't really care. This is just one of those things you got to find a way to do it because he has looked so dominant. And we've seen the Braves do this before. We've seen the Braves give guys jobs based on spring dominance. AJ Smith Shaver got a job out of spring training last year because he was really good. Now the difference there was Bryce Elder had options. They could sit him down. Jose Suarez doesn't have options. Martine Perez has an opt out. I got that wrong by the way. I said he wasn't an XXB free agent. The list I had from the MLB Players Association that I that I got from them was not the most updated list. they they reissued the list later in the off season to include some other guys and he was on the updated one. So, he does have an opt out automatically and Martin Perez could go to free agency this weekend if the Braves don't give him a 26-man roster spot. So, Mia Culpa there, I got that wrong. My apologies. Either way, I don't think that changes things. I don't think Perez being able to opt out or Suarez not having options, I don't think that should change the decision. You got to put Dud Fuente in the on the opening day roster. Again, I don't care what role. I don't care if he's the sixth starter to start the year. I don't care if he's a long man out of the pen. You got to find a way to include him. He's got a no hitter in spring. Quality competition, all that stuff. I hear you. He has a no hitter in spring. And if that's not the kind of thing we're going to reward, what are we even doing here? In just a minute, let's talk about the spring breakout. The rosters are out and the Braves did something different from what they did the first two years. We'll break that down next right here on Braves Today. But first, today's episode's brought to you by our friends at IQ Bar, our exclusive snack hydration and coffee sponsor. It's IQ Bar protein bars, IQ Mix hydration mixes, and IQ Joe mushroom infused coffees. The delicious low sugar brain and body fuel you need to win your day. Uh, the ultimate sampler pack. Great way to try all the IQ bar products and flavors. You get nine IQ bars, eight IQ mix sticks, four IQ Joe sticks, 20,000 five-star reviews in counting because more people than ever are fueling their busy lifestyles with these bars, hydration mixes, and coffees. And again, the Ultimate Sampler Pack has all three. And you can get 20% off all IQ Bar products, including that ultimate sampler pack, plus free shipping. To get that 20% off, text MLB264000. That's MLB to6400. Again, MLB264000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Welcome back to Braves today. Lindsey Crosby. Let's talk about the spring breakout because it's the third year of the thing. The Braves have never won. Year one, they lost to the Red Sox 7 to2. year two of it. Last year they lost to the Tigers six to3. This year they face the Yankees. They do it at their ballpark. It's a road trip for the Braves. This Saturday, I think it's like 6:35 Eastern is the game time or something. But the Braves did something different here. So, in previous years, they've built kind of a standard roster, right? 2024, they had um now traded Seban Sios on the roster to play third. They brought in they had Cade Bennell on the roster to play first. 2025 they had David McCabe and Will Compton to play the corner infield. They had Luke Wadell on the roster in both years specifically to be a second baseman. They were like, "Let's find guys who have done all of these things. Let's find guys who have played third. Let's find guys who have played first. Let's find guys who have played second. Like who who are third baseman, who are first baseman, who are second baseman. Let's build our roster that way. This year, not so much. There are seven players selected for the spring breakout in the infield for Atlanta. Tell me what you notice from the names that I give you. Okay. John Heel, Jim Jarvis, Alex Lodis, Cody Miller, Jose Purdomo, Tate Salosine, Dixon Williams. If your answer was, hey, six of those seven are shorts stops, you are right. It reminds me of like they're building the whole plane out of shorts stops. It reminds me of that idea in college football. That thing that people say sometimes, it isn't about the X's and O's, it's about the Gyms and Joe's, right? Just get as much talent as possible and trust that talent to figure it out. That's what they're doing here. Rather than going and saying, "Hey, who's the best first baseman we have? Who's the best third baseman we have? Who's the best second baseman we have? And full disclosure, Dixon Williams is listed on the roster as a second baseman. But everybody else is listed as a shortstop and they're just going to figure it out. Let the talent just put the athletes out there and let the talent figure it out. And you know, like odds are some of these players will end up playing these other positions in professional baseball. The 24 San Diego Padres's had a lineup that outside of catcher was entirely current or former shorts stops. Hassan Kim was at short. Xander Bogar was at second, had been short stop with the Red Sox. Jake Croninworth was at first. He had been a shortstop. Manny Machado was at third. He had been a shortstop. Juriken Proofar in left was a shortstop prospect. One of the top prospects in baseball when he was a prospect. Uh Jackson Merrill transitioned from shortstop to center field on opening day in the majors. Fernando Tatis Jr. went from shortstop to right field. And even Luis Srise, their DH, had like a couple hundred shorts stop innings in his minor league career. Literally every single player but their catcher was a former shortstop. That's kind of what the Braves are doing with this infield. I'm assuming the lineup to start the game is going to be something like Alex Lodis at short. He hasn't really played a lot of third base. John He's played like 50 games there. So, I imagine he'll be at third. [snorts] Cody Miller is at second. He's played all three positions, but you probably put him at second. I imagine Dixon Williams comes off the bench to replace Cody Miller at second. Jim Jarvis is the closest thing to a utility guy you have in this group. you probably throw him at first. He is the most experienced in professional baseball. And I went back to look, I don't think any of these guys have played first base. I don't think you have a a guy who's been a first baseman. So, either it's this or one of the three catchers who were all kind of lower miners, non [snorts] nonpros, Archer Brookman, Colin Burgess, Manuel Dos Pasos, all three of those guys. Uh those are your catchers. You can kind of tell the Braves need to find a catcher, right? They need to Who's the next guy in the organization at catcher? Can they salvage Nick Montgomery? Do you have to go out and draft like Georgia Tech's Von Lackey in the first round? One of those two picks this year. Do you need to get a short stop, sorry, a catching prospect in the system? I still think Nick Montgomery is going to be better in this second year just because a lot of his issues last year felt like they were adjusting to the majors. talked to some folks uh behind the scenes who watched him and you know watched him play and everything and it's just it's a tough transition from um from high school to the pros and we talked about this last week with Noah Adcock Howith of the Augusta Green Jackets but I feel like Nick Montgomery is going to be better this year so maybe he's that next short that next catching prospect but either way you see they just went with the best talents they have the loudest tools, the most impressive infielders they have and they're going to figure it out on the fly. It's like seven innings. You can have anybody try at first base for seven innings, right? Maybe one of the catchers will end up covering a little bit of time if they need to at first. [snorts] And then the outfield, the outfield's tons of fun. Golly, six of the team's top seven outfield prospects are in here. Luis Guanip is the one guy that's that's out. But Owen Kerry, Patrick Cloy, Isaiah Drake, Connor Essenberg, Eric Hartman, Diego Torrrens. All six of those guys made this roster. And there's not a ton of experience here. Tors has only been DSL. Essenberg has yet to play an official minor league game. I did get a little bit of video of him on a back field the other day, hitting a double, but like for the most part, he did bridge league stuff end of the year last year. He's done minor league spring training stuff. He's not actually played in an official game yet, but those two guys look like they're the power bats. Hartman and Drake are speed guys. Torren is pretty speedy as well. He's kind of like doing both here. Owen Kerry and Patrick Cloisey are the jack of all trades guys here, right? They can do everything pretty well. They're not um amazing at anything, right? [snorts] So, you've got an interesting mix of to but it's just a really toolsy outfield. You've got a bunch of dudes who could play center field. You got some guys who can hit with power. You got some guys who are going to run and steal bases. It's really intriguing that you just went with tools versus we're going to pick two guys to play left, two guys to play center, two guys to play right. And then on the pitching side, I noticed something really interesting and I think we'll get some good information this weekend. The last the first two spring breakouts, whoever Atlanta had as the last pitcher of the game, because they typically go with a starter to open the game, a starting pitching prospect, and a starting pitching prospect to end the game. 2024 it was Spencer Schwelenbach was the guy that ended the game. I think he had I think he had like three strikeouts in the final three innings or whatever. And then he made his debut by May 29th. Dior Fuentes had the most strikeouts of any pitcher in spring breakout last year with seven strikeouts to end last year's game against the Tigers. He debuted on June 20th. I'm not saying. I'm just saying. So Owen Murphy and Garrett Bowman are the starting pitching prospects who were selected to this squad, right? You know, no J.R. Richie, no Dutier Fuentes, no Camoniti. And that's kind of a trend across baseball. I wrote more about that on the newsletter, by the way, if you want to go read the newsletter about the spring breakout. We wrote a whole thing about how a lot of top prospects aren't in it this year and some of the reasons why. That's the rest of the article on on Braves Today from Thursday. But out like and what's really interesting here for me is the guys who could possibly win rookie of like if you're assuming one of those two guys is going to debut, neither one of them even have odds for rookie of the year. Dier Fuentes. Okay, so uh Braves today sponsor FanDuel, they've put Dier Fuentes on the board for rookie of the year at plus 30,000. He's tied with Owen Casey, the outfielder for the Marlins, Moyes Bisteros, the catcher and DH for the Cubs, and Jet Williams, who was traded from the Mets to the Brewers, short stop and or second baseman center fielder uh as part of the Freddy Peralta deal. Dear Fuentes is tied with them, so tied for 10th best odds to win rookie of the year. But neither one of these guys, right, Owen Murphy, Garrett Bowman, they're not on the list. J.R. Richie isn't even on the list. But if the pattern holds from what we saw the last two years, whichever of these guys, Murphy or Bowman, pitches last in the game, they're going to have be called up at some point in time this year. We'll see how they do between those two guys. If Atlanta does the same thing as as last time, right? Reliever at the start, I'm sorry, starter starter to begin, starter to end. There are seven relievers, two lefties, Hayden Harris and Harry Hernandez. You got to be a literative H guy to get a lefty spot on this. And then the righties, Blaine Abietta, Isaac Gyos, Luis Vargas. We've seen all three of those guys in spring. And then um flamethrower Yan Carlos Lara and Raldi Munos. So I don't think you're going to see nine pitchers pitch in this game. You're probably going to get maybe two of those guys in there. I'm not sure. I also wonder if the Braves will do things differently if they have a lead. Part of the reason why you saw those starting pitching prospects cover the last couple innings is because they were losing. Do you go with some of these guys if you're winning? Do you instead of having Bowman cover the last three innings, do you get Jon Carlos Lara as a setup? Do you get Hayden Harris as a closer? Like what do you can you imagine going from a righty throwing 101 to a lefty throwing 92 but with that uh deception in that VA that Hayden Harris has? He's got to mess with the batter so much. I think they have a good chance to win. The Yankees aren't their system is built just as much if not more around pitching than Atlanta's. of the baseball, I'm sorry, of the MLB pipeline top 30 prospects for the Yankees, 21 of them are pitching prospects. The highest rated that they're bringing are two lefties, number 10 and number 11. Number 10, Pico Khan, was a fourthrounder out of Mississippi State last year that hasn't pitched an official game yet. Low to mid90s guy. Kyle Carr was a third rounder in 2023. He's throwing low 90s fast ball. He has a high 70s slerve and then he has both a two seamer and a change up to get ground balls. Good results in the South Atlantic South Atlantic league last year. He actually was the pitcher of the year, but uh you know low RA just doesn't get a lot of whiffs. They're bringing George Lombard Jr. their number one overall prospect short to play shortstop. They're not bringing Spencer Jones, the super whiff but superpower outfielder. They're not bringing him. So, one top 10 prospect, four top 20 prospects on their side. It's a winnable game for the Braves. We're going to break down everything from that game on the newsletter. I'm going to try to get if I can, I'm going to try to get a postgame like reaction pod up on Saturday. No promises, but I'm going to work on something like that for uh the spring breakout because I do think it's worth talking about. in just a minute. We did get the announcement from the Braves about the broadcast team, right? So, we Let's talk about everything we know about the broadcast team, about Braves vision, and what we're still waiting to find out about before the season starts next Wednesday in MLB next Friday for Atlanta. We'll do that next right here on Braves Today. But first, today's episode's brought to you by our friends at Grand Slam Getaways. If you're looking for a vacation, this is the thing you need to do. Grand Slam Getaways offers bucket list bus trips designed for Braves fans who love the game and want to travel in style. All three of these depart from Atlanta. You get field level tickets, three star hotels, daily breakfast, a full slate of ballparks, and other activities. Each trip includes at least two Braves Road games, appearances by former MLB players, giveaways, fun side trips, and more. It sounds to me like the perfect parent child summer adventure, right? Bonding time with one of your kids during the summer. You guys go on a road trip. May to Florida, June to the Midwest, July to the Northeast. You get again multiple Braves games as well as other games and fun side trips. Reserve your spot now with a small deposit. Go to grandlam-getaways.com to make this summer a grand slam. That's grandlam-getaways.com to let the baseball adventure begin. Final segment of Braves today. Lindsey Crosby. Let's talk about Braves vision. What we know and what we don't know so far this year. Uh the first thing is they have announced the broadcast team. This came out uh yesterday morning. Brandon Goden is back as playbyplay. CJ Nikowski is back as primary analyst, right? Third season together. Jeff Franor was specifically mentioned that he will be back to do at least 30 games this season. So, you know, CJowski is not going to do them all. Frank Core will step in sometimes. They may have them together, but I doubt it. Um, and honestly, everybody has feelings one way or the other. I'm a big fan of C.J. Nikkowski on the broadcast because of the information that he's able to give out. I love the very beginning of the game where he can kind of tell us you the report on what the umpire calls, right? Are they better or worse than average at pitches on the edge? Something down, something up, things like that. These are things that the team, the players, the catchers, the pitchers, they study that before the game. Like, I've been down in the tunnel and seen seen the the boards, the white boards and everything with all of the stuff up there before games. They study these things. They study where the umpire is more or less likely to call a strike than other umpires and all of that. So, I love that CJ gives us that same information. There are people who prefer Jeff Fran Core. you will get him. The one person that was not mentioned in the analyst group is Tom Glavin. He was not in the broadcast like in the announcement as he's back to do however many games or whatever. Obviously, they can bring in other analysts besides the two guys there. I have asked around and I have not gotten an answer yet on will we or will we not see Tom Glavin this year. hoping that this is Jeff Franor is the main backup analyst, but there's going to be others. We don't know for a fact. Wy Ballard and Paul Bird are both back to be in-game reporters. And then they've announced pregame and postgame shows. Braves on Deck is the pregame show. It's going to be hosted by Peter Moland, Nick Green, and Charlie Culverson. Both mo all three of those guys have been doing road games. I'm sorry, have been doing radio games during spring training with Ben Ingram. I've always loved Molin on this. I think Mland's insight's great. Nick Green's probably going to end up being the host of that. And then just, you know, kind of two analysts. I don't know how much they'll mix around, but I do think that's really fun. And then they're going to be bringing a postgame show that is create creatively named Braves Postgame. It's quote news analysis and a look at the unparalleled game day experience at truest park in the battery Atlanta. So, we don't necessarily know exactly who's going to host that. Is it the same three guys or not? What exactly is it going to entail? But we do know from the initial Braves vision announcement that they said that the focus in year 1 was going to be the pregame and post the focus in year one outside of the actual game broadcast was going to be the pregame and postgame. It is entirely possible that they add up or that you know that they put in other content throughout the year outside of the games, but they did say in year one the focus was going to be let's get the game covered obviously and then let's do pre and postgame. There's your lineup for that. They also did say that Braves vision would periodically have former Braves players throughout the season. So that could be what they use to bring in a Tom Glavin. other players that was that were a small part of the broadcast in years past, all that kind of stuff. Uh we also know Braves.tv, the streaming setup for this. The way that this works, if you are in the television market, in the Braves television market, so if you live in Iowa, this does not apply to you. If you are in the Braves television market, you can just pay to stream the games. No blackouts. It's the same platform that MLB.tv works on. You have the cho the option of $19.99 a month or $99 for the season. It's really a hundred. It's $99.99. So $100 for the season to stream all of the Braves Vision produced games. They're going to do over 140 games, but there are games that are national exclusives. If it's an ESPN game or a Peacock game or an Apple TV game or whatever, I don't believe it's going to be available on Braves.tv. You're going to have to go to that national provider for it. But any game that Braves Vision produces, you pay $99.99 for the season, you can watch it or $19.99 a month. Also, they have a package deal. So, MLB.tv TV is 150 a year and that lets you watch every single outofmarket game live. You can instead of paying $99.99 for Braves.tv and $149.99 for MLB.tv, which that's, you know, 250 bucks, you can just pay $1.99 for both together as a package. I reached out to the league because I had already renewed my MLB.tv TV subscription at the 149 figure when Braves TV was announced. They told me the way that that works, you can cancel your MLB.tv subscription, request a refund, and then turn around and sign up for both Braves.tv and MLB.tv as a package deal. So, if you've already paid for MLB.tv TV because you wanted to watch spring training games. The way to do this to get that discount is to cancel MLB.tv and then repurchase the combo package. It's a little frustrating going forward. You won't have to do this, but it's because Braves TV was announced after renewals came up for MLB.TV. It's a one-year issue here. The thing that we don't know, the thing that we do not have confirmation on is what cable channels will carry and what cable providers will carry Braves vision this year. Every time that they've done something, they have continued to say that they are working on getting those distribution deals agreed to. There is nothing official yet, but I've been told from two different people, one of them who works for a cable provider, not authorized to speak publicly, that the Braves are offering the channel to cable providers as long as it's not in a sports package. It's it it has to be at least the extended cable pack. They're not requiring it to be on everybody's like base level cable package, but if you have the extended cable package, it needs to be included in there. And the cost, the carriage cost, which is the money Braves Vision receives for every subscriber who has this channel in their package, is $5 per customer. The pricing is really kind of interesting here at $5 because looking at some of the different um providers that are out there, you see some different stuff. For instance, ESPN is almost $11 a month. A lot of regional sports networks, depending on um depending on the region, were between $4 and $9. So this is kind of this is competitively priced because there were some who were as high as you know $8.99 a customer to carry their you know Dodgers broadcast or whatever it is. The Braves are at $5. Sports is sports carriage fees are usually the largest amount like like larger than anything else. TNT is like $3 and change. Fox is like just under $3. ABC is just over $3. Right. A lot of channels are smaller. Live sports are typically the highest thing, but hearing that a lot of RSN's again $4 to9 is kind of the range. The Braves are on the lower end of that goes back to a thing that I wrote uh maybe last week about how the Braves need to prioritize access over money. They're not going to give this away. Like, we have to understand they're not going to give this away. But I believe that is a lower amount than what FanDuel than the FanDuel sports network what the cost for that was. So the Braves are offering this likely lower than a lot of their competitors as well as lower than what their predecessor was because they're trying to prioritize getting in as many cable packages and as many people in Braves country as possible. So again, some point in time between now and next week, they're going to announce what cable providers already have deals in place. If you don't have cable, I don't have cable. If you don't have cable or you don't want to worry about that, Braves.tv, $99 a season, or Braves.tv and MLB.tv TV. Together, you can watch every everything directly streaming on your device outside of the national exclusive games. As soon as we get updated information on which cable providers are carrying the channel, we'll absolutely I will come back here. We will talk about that and make sure that you know before opening day how to watch the Atlanta Braves in 2026. This has been Braves Today. Please do me a favor. Please like the video. 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Host Lindsay Crosby recaps Didier Fuentes’ dominant spring training run, noting he’s faced 27 batters, retired 26, and allowed no hits across nine innings while featuring a 97–99 mph four-seamer, a new harder gyro slider, and a developing splitter/changeup, prompting a case for including him on the Opening Day roster in 2026. The episode also breaks down the Braves’ Spring Breakout roster strategy, highlighting an infield loaded with shortstops and a toolsy outfield, plus pitching selections and a pattern from prior years about who might debut later. Finally, Crosby details BravesVision updates: the announced broadcast team, planned pregame/postgame shows, Braves TV streaming pricing and bundle options with MLB.TV, and the unresolved status of cable carriage deals and related fees. 02:37 Pros and Cons of Fuentes on Opening Day roster 12:55 Atlanta Braves set Spring Breakout roster 27:57 Everything we know about BravesVision Subscribe to Braves Today on audio wherever you get your podcasts Join our NEW Discord: https://discord.gg/wksQqVNEpX Follow the show on Twitter: @braves_today Follow Lindsay on Twitter: @CrosbyBaseball Read our written work: bravestoday.substack.com Send us questions: contact@bravestoday.com Get 10% off at Chinook Seedery with promo code "Braves" Get 20% off at NCase Cards with promo code "BravesToday" Rocker Chicks by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/