Atlanta

Braves

Holmes, returning from a partially torn UCL and a flexor strain, averaged 93.3 mph with his fastball today, down a reasonable 1.2 mph from his 2025 average. He gave up four hard-hit balls today, but all were caught in the outfield. The lone hit he allowed came on an 85-mph fly from Luke Keaschall, the softest contact Holmes gave up on the day.

Riley’s 428-foot homer left the bat at 106 mph, and he also had a 107-mph lineout to left. Not typically a big spring performer, Riley has already matched his 2025 total of two Grapefruit League homers. His high is four from 2020.

Statcast had López’s fastball down 3.6 mph from last year in today’s outing, which is comparable to where his velocity was before Statcast went out partway through his spring debut last week. López’s breaking balls aren’t down quite so much, but it’s not looking great, with his curveball spin rate today down about eight percent from last year. López is building up after last year’s shoulder surgery, and it’s still really early. However, he’s probably going to need to get back into the mid-90s to be a quality MLB starter. He averaged 92.0 mph today.

Stratton was always facing an uphill battle at earning a spot in the Braves’ Opening Day bullpen and surrendering six earned runs over 1 1/3 innings during Grapefruit League play sealed the deal for him. Alvarez will open as an everyday player at Triple-A Gwinnett and will most certainly see time with the Braves at some point in 2026. The Braves now have 62 players remaining on the major league side of camp.

Strider’s four-seam fastball velocity was down over two miles per-hour from last year as he averaged just 93.1 mph in this early-spring outing. He generated just three swinging strikes and finished with a 19 percent CSW on 32 pitches. The positive news is that he allowed just three batted balls with exit velocities over 95 mph. The 27-year-old former fantasy ace is one of the riskier mid-round selections in drafts this spring as his velocity and command simply haven’t returned to pre-surgery levels.

Acuña swiped second and third after collecting a single off Brayan Bello in the first. He typically saves his steals for the regular season — he was 1-for-1 stealing bases in 2023 and 0-for-1 in 2024 before missing last spring in his ACL recovery — so it was fun seeing him be aggressive today. Acuña is 3-for-11 this spring.

Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela homered off him, but Sale said afterwards that he was encouraged by the outing. He topped out at 97.5 mph, and he had a 36% CSW.

Yastrzemski already has three homers in five games this spring. He had 25 homers for the Giants in 2021, but he’s come in at 15-18 each of the last four years and probably won’t do much better there as a platoon player in Atlanta.

All five runs came in the first, when Carrasco was pulled with two outs. The second inning went smoothly, though, as he retired Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger in order. Carrasco remains a long shot to claim the fifth spot in Atlanta’s rotation.

Hernández’s return last summer after a year in Korea didn’t result in any fanfare, but he’s currently sporting a little more velocity than ever before — he averaged 92.6 mph with his fastball and 92.9 mph with his sinker today — and he’s always had quality secondary stuff. He’s probably not going to break camp as the Braves’ fifth starter, since he’s on a minor league deal and the team has several out-of-options arms in the mix — but he might eventually prove useful to the Braves if the velocity sticks around.