Didier Fuentes Make Spring Debut and Looks FANTASTIC; Wentz Injury Scare | Atlanta Braves Podcast

Diddier Fuentes debuted this weekend and much to Mark Bark Bowman Shagrin, he looked fantastic. Let's talk about it. [music] [music] Yes. Welcome on in to Braves Today, your source for news, notes, and updates on your Atlanta Braves. I'm your host, Lindsay Crosby, award-winning baseball writer and podcaster. You can follow me on social media at Crosby Baseball. You can find all my written work, bravestoday.com. That's the Braves Today Substack, as this is both a podcast and a newsletter. We're proudly part of the Believe Podcast Network and presented to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app or go to fanduel.com to get started. And also, shout out to my co-host, Bandit, back there. A lot of you who did the podcast survey said you wanted more Bandit. So, we've tried to position his sleeping spot on the couch to be in camera frame if you're watching on YouTube. Thanks to him for being a good boy during this broadcast. Okay, so I want to talk about Jurgson Proofar and kind of where he fits into some of the bad Atlanta Braves contracts of all time because there we had an article on the newsletter from contributor Taylor talking about it. Got a lot of reaction from it. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about the final bullpin spot. James Karen has looked fantastic, but Joel Pyamps made his spring training debut over the weekend. He looked really good. Let's talk about what's going to go into that decision because I don't think it's going to be just how well this guy is throwing. It's also going to come down to roster logistics. But before we do that, we finally saw Diddier Fuentes debut this weekend. He was one of just a few Braves pitchers we had not yet seen in competition. We had not yet seen Fuentes. We had not seen Joel Pyamps. We had not seen Dabel Hernandez. We got both Fuentes and Py this weekend. And for Fuentes, this wasn't anything malicious or anything. There wasn't anything wrong with him. He was just kind of slow in his ramp up when he got to spring training because he spent a lot of the offseason recovering from his shoulder inflammation that bothered him last year, right? He didn't spend a lot of the offseason doing normal pitching work where he could come into camp and be ready to go. He spent a lot of time just getting healthy. But when he pitched, it was so good. He got two innings on Saturday against the Orioles. He finished with no runs, no hits, and no walks allowed through 25 pitches, got four strikeouts. And like it was a little bit rocky at first, but he rebounded from that to just be absolutely dominant. When Ded Fuentes took the mound, very first thing that he did, he hit Colin Yemen with a pitch. Oh, a two- count, fast ball runs inside. Right. It's okay. He turns around. He throws a first pitch sweeper to Reed Treble of the Orioles. gets a uh double play. So, erase is the runner and from there he strikes out the next four batters he faced. And I think what stood out to me when watching this is Deer Fuentes looked to be really good with his fast ball up in the zone. One of the things he struggled with last year, I guess the two things he struggled with last year, thing number one was he really struggled to get strike three. And we saw Spencer Schwelenbach go through this same issue in 2024. Schwelenbach the first five or so starts. It felt like he really struggled to put guys away when he got them to two strikes. He just needed a little more experience, a little more practice. He also added some pitches which kind of helped him. Fuentes never really got to that point before they had to send him back down because of how many runs he had earned. So elevated fast ball looked really good. That was the other issue he had was just locating the fast ball up in the zone. He averaged 97.4 on it. It's a mile and a half higher than what he did last year. He got 10 swings on it. Seven of those were whiffs. Mark Bowman had a a stat from Statcast that I went back and verified was correct. Fuentes is one of only six pitchers this spring to throw 20 or more for four seamers in a single spring training game and get a 35% or better whiff rate on it. In his case, he had a 70% whiff rate on the forseam fast. When you look at kind of what he does throwing that force fast up in the zone, he's he's only six foot tall, so it's a lower it's a lower release point. He's got that low vertical approach angle, kind of like we've talked about with Hayden Harris, where he's not throwing heavily downhill or anything like that. Being able to locate the forseam fast ball up in the zone, it's kind of a big deal. He was able to do that really well on Saturday. Of the four strikeouts, three of them came on an elevated fastball. One of them top of the zone, I think two of them were like well above the zone. and the guys chased. And then the last one actually wasn't good process. It was bad process, but good result. He had a two- two heater. He threw it middle. The guy fouled it off and then he went right back to that spot. Threw another middle middle fast ball and happened to get the strikeout the the last time. And I'm just like, you wouldn't coach anybody to go right back with a middle middle fast ball. He did it. It worked out. But all four of the strikeouts come there on the forcing fast ball. He also has changed his slider. When he pitched in the majors last year, he was sweeper, curveball, splitter. The sweeper was his dominant secondary pitch. 28% usage. It was even higher to righties because it's a heavy platoon split on a pitch. But 28% sweeper, 11% curveball, 3% splitter. And then against lefties, he just backed off the sweeper a little bit and ramped up the curveball usage some. So that's kind of how he was really a two- pitch pitcher to righties. Fastball sweeper. And against lefties, he was fast ball then curveball then sweeper. That's not what he threw on Saturday. When you go look at the movements you threw, you know, everything that he did, the velocities and all of that, he's replaced the sweeper with what looks like a tight gyro slider. And if you would say like if you're the amateur pitching nerd like that I am and you're thinking wait a forseam fast ball with good velocity and good induced vertical break up in the zone from a low VAAA combined with a tight gyro slider. That's the Spencer Strider starter kit. You would be correct. He has kind of transformed into a mini version of Spencer Strider. He doesn't have the quads, but four seam gyro slider. Now, I'm assuming he still has that curveball, and I'm assuming he still has that splitter. Again, we did not see them on Saturday. Every pitch was the four seamer or the gyro slider. But if he does still have those pitches, he has Spencer Strider's current arsenal. I would argue a little bit of a better off-speed pitch in a splitter versus a change up. I'm kind of a ch I'm not a change- up hater, but I'm really not a big believer in change ups as being a significant part of your arsenal. I am okay with splitters because the movement profile helps you some, but most changeups just kind of feel like they are they're more reliant on um they're more reliant on the velocity difference than they are on the actual movement profile. And that to me just is kind of scary. Like if a dude is expecting a change up in that count, he's probably gonna crush your change up. even if it's a good change up from a velocity perspective. So, I'm kind of a hater when it comes to change ups, but I like a good splitter. And I feel like if Fuentes still has the curveball and splitter and still has the faith in those, you have to love the package. Again, first out in a spring, his velocity was already really good. He averaged 97.4 mile and a half higher than last season. Obviously, this was not a start. He threw 20 fast balls, not the usual 50 or 60 he would throw in an outing. Does he keep that velocity as he keeps going? But either way, you have to feel really good about that. And so like I kind of I didn't write him off from contributing in 26, but I don't necessarily think that I was counting on him to do anything of note in the major leagues. A lot of Dior Fuentes to me in 25 was you sit in Gwynette, you make your start every fifth days or every fifth day. Get comfortable getting strike three. Get comfortable turning over a lineup once or twice. And if the Braves need an emergency starter, a spot starter, you're already on the 40man roster. If some of the changes we saw in this very small sample size hold, then I feel good about the ability of Fuentes to not just be emergency depth, but to actually give you meaningful and decent innings in 2026. Obviously, very small sample size, but what we saw from the process was really good and was an improvement over what we saw last year. Let's see. One, did he keep the curveball and splitter? Uh how well can he locate everything? He settled in after the first batter or two, which Bryce Elder never really did in that in that outing on Sunday. But we'll see what Fuentes looks like going forward. In just a minute, I want to talk about the bullpen because we saw a guy we hadn't seen yet. We got a lot of We got some more information on the guys back there and I think you're up for a really interesting conversation. We'll do that next right here on Braves Today. But first, today's episode's brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack, hydration, and coffee sponsor. 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So I um right now IQ Bar is offering our podcast listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products including their ultimate sampler pack plus free shipping. To get that 20% off, text MLB to 64,000. That's MLB to6400. That's MLB 264,000. Now, measures and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Welcome back to Braves today. Lindseay Crosby. Let's talk about the bullpen because James Keranchek pitched over the weekend. He continues to look really good. Joel Pymp pitched over the weekend. He looked better than he did last year. And so it's a really interesting conversation because the bullpen right now, we've covered this a little bit in the past. The bullpen right now is kind of locked in. A lot of these spots are kind of locked down. Rise of Glaciius, Robert Suarez, Dylan Lee, Tyler Kinley, those are locks. Those dudes are in the bullpen. Aaron Bummer is presumably your second lefty in the pin behind Der behind Dylan Lee. Bummer's thrown a grand total of one inning in spring training. He threw 10 pitches. He has one strikeout. Assuming he's ready to go, again, we've seen him one time and we are kind of halfway through spring training at this point. Assuming he's ready to go, he's another spot in your bullpen, meaning you have three slots left. And I think because of the way the schedule breaks down, this is where you're going to have some questions. We would assume Joey Wentz is in there, although they've discussed using Joey Wentz in the rotation the first two times through because the Braves have 13 games in 13 days to open the season. They've talked about using Joey Wentz as a six starter. So, he did leave the game on Sunday with a knee injury after a minor collision at first base with Taylor Walls of the Rays, who by the way attempted multiple bunts on Sunday, which is a little bit annoying for spring training. Like, you don't have to go that hard in spring, Taylor. But whence they they brought the card out to help him off the field. Per the media in Northport, Fred of the Show, Chad Bishop, he did go into the clubhouse under his own power. He walked into the clubhouse himself. They believe he's avoided serious injury. So, we'll see what the final prognosis is, but as of now, he is expected to be available for opening day and to be that six starter. And so, that means you have two spots left in your pen. And to me, you really kind of have three or four guys that you're trying to figure out which of these guys get one of those spots in the pin. Joel Pyamps made his spring trading debut on Sunday. Reminder, he's the Brewers starter or sorry, the Brewers reliever that was really, really good up until 2025. He struggled. They let him go. The Braves grabbed him off of waiverss. He had a uh an inning with no runs and no hits. He walked one. He didn't strike out anybody. Leadoff walk. Got a double play to erase that batter. And then we talk about process over results, right? He he averaged 96 miles an hour on his four seamer. Last year his VO was down. He was averaging just under 95. It's like 94 and change. He was at 96 today. So, you feel good about where the fast ball is for this point of spring, especially given that that was his first appearance. You do need to get him some more innings. You need him to stack innings, maybe even get you a backto back or two so that you know two two outings in two days so that you know he's ready for opening day. But he's making two plus million dollars like he has a guarantee. And so the fact that he made his debut, he looked good, you can probably pencil him in, which means that last spot in the pin kind of comes down to three players. Uh we're kind of ruling out some of the guys who have options and can start the year in Gwynette. Dylan Dodd, uh Hayden Harris, both those illiterative guys have not looked bad this year, but they have minor league options. It is easier to start them in triple A and them be some of the first callups if you have an injury or some sort of poor performance and you have to move on from a guy, right? So, as much as I like Hayden Harris, friend of the show, he came on my old prospect podcast back when it was 2023, I think. He came on my prospect podcast to talk about his whole, you know, leaving Georgia Southern after graduation, signing as a UDFA with the Braves and all of that. Great guy, but he has options. And typically that means he's going to be squeezed off the roster by a guy that doesn't have options, which you kind of come down to Ian Hamilton, Jose Suarez, James Karen Jack, who does have an option, but I'll get to that in a second. Ian Hamilton, they signed to a major league deal in December, but it's a non-g guaranteed deal. He was with the Yankees most recently, was one of their back-end guys, and he's made one appearance in spring. It did not go really well. Two hits, one run, twothirds of an inning, walked two, no strikeouts. We have not seen him since then. So, from a contract perspective, he looks like he should be one of the favorites to make the team. But if you don't see him pitch, and it's been it's been a minute since he did that, too. It's not like that was the other day. That was February 23rd. We've not seen Ian Hamilton in a game since February 23rd. It is now March 9th. So, you kind of have to wonder, is there some sort of injury issue? Is something going on? If so, the Braves can put him on the injured list to start the season and kind of punt the decision on do you start Ian Hamilton in the like in the bullpin or not? Do you give him a opening day roster spot? You can throw him on the IIL if he did have a medical setback and you can punt that decision. But the other two guys, it comes down to James Keranch or Jose Suarez. And there's reasons for both. And I think for Karen Shack, the thing to remember is he has looked really good in spring. We saw him again on Sunday. The curveball is curveballing. It looks very, very good. He had a scoreless on Saturday, right? Struck out the side on 17 pitches. 13 of those were strikes. He threw more curve balls than fast balls. He wanted to work on it, but it's curveballing. He got five whiffs in nine swings on the curveball fastball combo. He's sitting at 20 in of induced vertical break on the forse fast ball, which is an absurd number. And his velocity is close to what it was when he was in his heyday. Uh I saw one of the pitching analysts on social media call it a monster fast ball. It's kind of what it's looking like. The velocity is not all inspiring, right? He's not throwing 99 or anything, but from a movement perspective, it is a very good forcing fast ball combined with the best curveball he's had since the league started checking guys for sticky stuff. That wasn't that was a James Carjack issue earlier in his career. So, from a performance and quality of his stuff perspective, James Karen looks like the guy to beat. The problem is roster logistics could get in the way. Joey Wentz, assuming he's healthy, again, he had a knee injury as of time of recording on Sunday evening. We don't know anything further than the Braves believe he avoided significant injury, right? They think he's dayto-day right now. Nothing official as far as anything more than that. Assuming that he is going to be available for opening day and going to be fine, he's going to be classified as a starter the first two times through the rotation probably. And so what that means is if you give James Kerran that last spot in the pin, you don't have any long man for the bullpin other than Aaron Bummer. And Aaron Bummer has thrown multiple innings in the past. He has been that that long man for you. And matter of fact, if you take out the two appearances he made last year as an opener, including one where he was pushed into like a I think a third or fourth inning, right? He gave up he gave up six runs in four and a third innings as a starter, like making, you know, being an opener, making a spot start there. As a reliever, he had an erra of 306. So, yes, his velocity was down throughout the course of the season. We do think the shoulder issue that put him on the IIL was part of that, but Aaron Bummer like was not bad when you take out the times that he was asked to start and then pushed a little too far, right? His overall erra was, I believe, a 381 and almost a full run of that was his two starts. So maybe you trust him to go multiple innings, right, coming off the shoulder injury. But if you don't, then Jose Suarez is a guy you probably should put on the opening day roster because he is going to be able to take multiple innings and to be your long man while um while Joey Wentz is in the rotation temporarily. Uh he's pitched in two games. He has four innings so far this spring. He struck out three. He's not allowed to run. He has walked two, but no hits, no runs. He's pitching well for spring training and the competition level caveats and all that play. But you're in a situation now where from a performance perspective, you probably want Karen Shack. From a roster logistics with your need for a long man, you probably want Suarez. from a you signed a guy this off seasonason to a major league deal perspective, you probably want Ian Hamilton. The thing that I think helps a little bit here, there is a way to work this out because James Karen, he has four years and 99 days of service time and a minor league option, but he's not on the 40man roster because he didn't finish last year on the 40man roster. He does not automatically have an opt out in the deal. Now, they may have given him one, I don't know. But to have an automatic opt out in your in your minor league deal, this typically applies to what are called XXB free agents. It's article XX subsection B in the CBA. But these are guys that have six or more years of service time and finish the previous season on either the 60-day IIL or on the 40man roster. Those guys have automatic optouts into any minor league deal that they sign. and 5 days before opening day, May 1st and June 1st are their three opportunities to opt out of the deal and become a free agent. They have to notify the team in writing before they before the date comes and the team can cancel out their opt out by putting them on the 26man roster. But because Karen Czech was not in the majors to finish last year, odds are he doesn't have one. So that means there is a way to take care of this. If Hamilton did have a medical setback and that's the reason we haven't seen him, you can put him on the injured list to start the season. You can then put Jose Suarez in your pin as your long man while Joey Wentz starts the year in your rotation. and you can reassign James Karen to minor league camp and then call him up from Gwynette whenever you're ready. Maybe that's something Maybe that's something where uh after that first two weeks, Jose Suarez is designated for assignment and you hope you can squeeze him through waiverss and send him to Gwynette. Maybe that's what you do. And WZ takes over the long man role and that gives you the option you can activate a Hamilton. You can call up a Karen check. You can do whatever. Maybe that's what they do. I don't know what the logistics are. But there is a way to take care of this. The problem is if you think Karen Check, sorry, not if you think if Karen Czech does get an opening day roster spot by virtue of being so good in spring training, which is not out of the realm of possibility. AA's done that before. Forest Wall made the team. was it 23 24 and then barely played but he made the team and Snit said it was because he was so good in spring training. If you give Karen check a roster spot to open the year, you then have to decide who you're moving on from. And again, if you move on from Jose Suarez and you're using Joey Wentz as a starter, you don't really have a long man other than Aaron Bummer. And if you use Aaron Bummer as your long man, then you don't have another lefty in your pin other than Dylan Lee. So, it's it's a little bit convoluted and that's why these things aren't just who are the best performing baseball players right now. These decisions have a lot of other factors that go into them and that is one of those. In just a minute, I'm ready to stop talking about Juriken Proofar. I am tired of talking about this dude who threw away a really lucrative contract. But was that contract the worst contract in Atlanta Braves history? We'll talk about it next right here on Braves Today. But first, today's show is brought to you by our friends at Grand Slam Getaways. If you've dreamt of the ultimate baseball road trip, this one is for you. Grand Slam Getaways offers bucket list bus trips designed for fans who love the game and want to travel in style. All these trips depart from Atlanta. You get fieldle tickets to multiple Braves Road games, three star hotels, daily breakfast, a full slate of ballparks and other activities. Again, at least two Braves Road games, plus other non Braves games on the route. appearances by former MLB players, giveaways, fun side trips like the Louisville Slugger Museum, the Bulldm filming locations, and more. Doesn't matter if you're retired, you're just a baseball nut, or you want a parent child summer adventure. This is a stress-free way to hit the road with fellow baseball fans. Three trips to choose from. May to Florida, June to the Midwest, July to the Northeast. All time to match up with some great Braves road games. So, reserve your spot now with a small deposit. Go to grandlam-getaways.com to make the summer a grand slam. Check it out now. grandslam-getaways.com to let the baseball adventure begin. Final segment of Braves today. Lindsey Crosby. Jericken Proofar signed for three years and $42 million with the Braves in January of 2025. He lost close to half that money last year. He's going to lose all of 2026's salary, $15 million. And to kind of clarify on that a little bit, he is on the suspension like it started last Friday, but he is appealing for a second suspension for peeds. Not like it's different from the first. On the second, you can't keep playing while you've appealed the suspension, right? a first offense. Edmundo Sosa of the Phillies was popped on a first suspension. He is still playing spring training games while the appeal process is underway. For ProFar, he doesn't have that option. If you're a second time offender, you do not get to keep playing while you are appealing. So, he had to leave the WBC team. He left like an hour before their game. [laughter] And so, they had to scramble to replace him. Obviously, he's going to miss the entire 2026 season. For those of you who have asked, the MLB PA is appealing this because that's their job. What happens when you appeal this is there's a hearing and that means that MLB has to go through everything that happened. So, they get an opportunity to confirm all of the protocols for the peed testing were being followed correctly. They're not going in there arguing that jerks and proofar shouldn't get suspended. They're going in there and saying, "Hey, show us that everything was done correctly so that they can make sure that everything's being followed as part of the testing process. That's what it's for. They're not trying to get jerks and proofar out of the suspension. They're trying to confirm everything was done correctly. And that's their job. It's due process. If you were going to get suspended, you would want someone to come behind you and say, "Hey, we just want to make sure everything was done right." That's all that is. I have no nothing against the players association for appealing this. That's their job to do that. But Taylor, our contributor from Braves Today, who was on the show a couple weeks ago, talked about draft players. He wrote a piece for Braves Today on over on the newsletter about the worst contracts in Atlanta Braves history and he did it in chronological order. So he led with Juriken Proofar again 3 years 42 million. I feel like you really can't call this one the worst contract though in Braves history simply because you're getting out of paying for a lot of this, right? Like when he's suspended he you're not paying him for this. So you saved eight something million on this. You're not you're saving 15 million this year, right? So, he'll play 80 out of 324 games in the first two years, but you're paying him for only 80 games. It's hard for me to say this is the worst contract of all time. But when you go into into the contracts before that, Cole Hamills got a one-year $18 million deal for the 2020 season. 36 years old. He suffered a shoulder injury in spring training. And so he ended up only making one start. He pitched three and a third innings for the Braves. Three hits, three runs, one walk, two strikeouts. That was all the Braves got for $18 million. He never pitched in the majors again. But one, not really a lot of bad one-year deals. It's a one-year deal. It didn't work. It was a lot of money. It didn't work out. But two, there were a lot there was a lot of stuff written at the time and later about how much help Cole Hamills gave Max Freed. And so like Max Freed being becoming the guy that he did, he's directly contributed that to Cole Hamls and we saw Max Freed in 2021 have that amazing start in game six of the World Series where the Braves won the championship. So it's hard for me to say that the Cole Hamills deal is one of the wor is the worst in Braves history because of that. Before that, you have uh BJ Upton, Melvin Upton, five years, 75.25 million. He got at the time the largest free agent contract ever at the very end of the Chipper Jones tenure. The very end of Chipper's career, they were trying to push for one last thing. But in 2013, golly, 184 average, 557 on PS, sorry. nine home runs, 12 stolen bases. He was worth minus 0.9 war per fan graphs. Uh really wasn't working out. They traded BJ Upton, Craig Campbell to the Padres's, but one of the picks they got back from the Padres's and all of the pieces that they got was Austin Riley. Just not a really good deal. Some people suggested Mike Hampton in this. The Braves didn't sign the Mike Hampton deal. Mike Hampton signed with the Rockies, eight years, 121 million. He was traded to the Marlins, who traded him to the Braves. He only pitched 25 games in the last four years of the deal. They didn't they did send the Braves $30 million in the packet. All right, they sent the Marlins 30 million. I think that money got redirected to Atlanta, but like he was good. like he had a solid season in 2003, 384 RA, won a gold glove and then the injuries kicked in. So, I'm kind of keeping Mike Hampton off of this because the Braves didn't sign that contract. Couple other pitchers on this list though. Barollo Cologne, one year, $12.5 million for 2017. He wasn't good though. 814 ERA, 1.78 whip. They DFAD him at the end of June. Again, it's a one-year deal. It wasn't a ton of money. It didn't work out at all, but not the worst deal in the world. A wor a ter a a worse deal to me was Derek Low. Four years, 60 million bucks prior to 2009. At the time, that was the largest free agent deal that the organization had ever given out. He wasn't terrible in '09. 467 RA. He wasn't good, but he wasn't terrible. Whip was like 137. He made 33 starts. Like he did a lot of the other stuff. I actually think he led the National League in game started in 2009, right? But then after that, he just wasn't really the same. 2010, the ERA, again, not good. 2011, it became a 505 ERA. The Braves ended up trading him and $10 million to get a minor league reliever. In 2012, he pitched for Cleveland. He pitched for the Yankees. Combined 511 ERA. He then eventually signed with the Texas Rangers for his age 40 season of nine in 13 innings and was done and retired. Like this one wasn't so much about him being bad as it was how bad he was compared to the expectations we had for him. The worst one for me and it's not catching Kawakami that was on Taylor's list as well. three years 23 million um came over really kind of struggled 386 RA in his first season which isn't awful right but then after that 515 erra 1 and10 record they outrighted him to double A and he spent the entire year the third year of the deal in double A and then went back to Japan to me the worst one is Bruce Sutter and I say that no like I love Bruce Sutter I'm a fan of Bruce Bruce Sutter. It's not just the deal in and of itself. 6 years, 9.6 million. And part of the reason this deal was so bad was Bruce Sutter barely pitched for the Braves, which not good, right? He made um he threw 152 and a third innings after they signed him to a six-year deal, but also he had deferred money in this deal. So in 1985 as a reliever they got 23 saves out of Bruce Sutter. 448 erra not good. He had solder surgery. He came back in 1986. 16 games, three saves. Goes on the DL in May with an RA of 434. Didn't come back that season. Didn't come back in 1987. Comes back in 1988. 476 ERA, 45 and a3 innings, only picks up 14 seasons or 14 saves, strikes out 40 in 45 innings, but he had deferrals. They had to pay him a total of $43 million after he retired. It was a $4.8 million base salary that he was getting in the season. The other half of it was deferred at a 13% interest rate because that was kind of standard in the 80s. Ask your ask your grandparents about their mortgage payments or depending on the on the age that you are, right? Ask somebody who had a mortgage in the 80s about the interest rates you were paying. was 13% interest on this. And so they deferred $4.8 million of it for 30 years. And so the Braves were paying $1.3 million a year for close to 30 years. And then at the end of it, they had a final payment of $9.1 million. Outside of Bobby Bonia, it's one of the best deferred contracts for a player in baseball history. And it was the Braves that had to pay it. And that might be part of the reason this team does not offer deferred money now because they've had to pay terrible deferred deals in the in the past. I've heard this called quote the eternal deferred contract because again the interest rate was huge and it was spread over 30 years. Tough tough look. It's hard to argue that paying a dude $43 million on an original $9 million contract and sorry, paying 43 million after he retired, having played like 15% of the possible games and only avent like and only covering only being available in three seasons of the deal. He pitched in 112 games for you on a sixseason contract and you paid him 43 million after he retired. It's hard to argue that's not the worst deal in Atlanta Braves history. But if I forgot one, let me know. Uh I'm on social media, Crosby Baseball. Heck, you can email us contact bravestoday.com. But either way, until next time, this has been Braves Today.

Lindsay Crosby breaks down Didier Fuentes’ first spring appearance, noting his recovery from shoulder inflammation, a dominant two-inning outing vs. the Orioles, strong high-zone command, and a revamped arsenal featuring a tight gyro slider replacing his prior sweeper. Crosby then examines the Braves’ bullpen roster crunch, highlighting strong spring performances from James Karinchak and Joel Payamps (waiver claim from Milwaukee) and discussing how roster logistics, options, injuries, and the need for a long reliever (with Joey Wentz possibly starting early) could impact final decisions involving Karinchak, Josè Suarez, and Ian Hamilton. The episode closes with a discussion of Jurickson Profar’s PED suspension appeal and a review of notable bad Braves contracts, arguing Bruce Sutter’s deferred-money deal stands out as the worst. 01:47 Fuentes' Dominant Outing 12:49 Bullpen Picture and Locks 29:13 Worst Braves Contracts Debate 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/