To further his development as a starting pitcher, the Atlanta Braves optioned right-handed prospect Didier Fuentes to Triple-A Gwinnett on Monday and purchased the contract of veteran left-hander Martin Perez.
Fuentes, 20, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Braves’ No. 3 prospect, threw 56 pitches over four relief innings in Sunday’s home loss to the Royals, meaning he would not have been available for four or five days.
Perez, who turns 35 on April 4, is a candidate to start Tuesday’s home game against the Athletics, along with left-hander Jose Suarez. One will be the top long relief option for Monday’s series opener.
After retiring 26 of the first 27 batters – with 17 strikeouts – he faced in Grapefruit League action, Fuentes held the Pirates to one run in 4 2/3 innings in his last spring outing. In his regular-season debut, the righty allowed one run on two hits over his four innings Sunday.
The Colombia native debuted last season, three days after turning 20, and he allowed 20 earned runs over four starts spanning 13 innings before being sent down.
On Sunday, Fuentes’ fastball averaged 95.8 mph and the harder slider he has been working on since last season averaged 85.8 mph. However, Royals hitters only swung and missed at three of his fastballs and hit his slider on both swings.
Fuentes didn’t use the recently added changeup/splitter in his Grapefruit League debut on March 7 but threw it 10 times on Sunday while only using his slider nine times. Back at Triple-A, he will continue to work on the changeup/splitter before rejoining the Braves.
Perez is a 14-year veteran who joined the Braves on a minor league contract in January. A 2022 All-Star with the Texas Rangers, Perez is 91-93 with a 4.41 ERA over 325 games (279 starts) for the Rangers (2012-18, 2022-23), Minnesota Twins (2019), Boston Red Sox (2020-21), Pittsburgh Pirates (2024), San Diego Padres (2024) and Chicago White Sox (2025).
