Happy Valentine\u2019s Day. Here\u2019s to hearts, roses, chocolates and Atlanta Braves baseball.<\/p>\n
Well, one out of four ain\u2019t bad.<\/p>\n
The first week of Spring Training is almost in the books, and there\u2019s already been the notable addition of catcher Jonah Heim and the loss of starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach.<\/p>\n
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Projecting the Opening Day roster before Spring Training games begin is a fool\u2019s errand, but luckily for you, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n
This projection is based on who is on the Braves\u2019 40-man roster or in camp with the team and assumes that everyone is \u201chealthy\u201d six weeks from now. All the usual caveats apply related to injuries, acquisitions and the like.<\/p>\n
Position Players<\/p>\n
Catchers: Drake Baldwin<\/p>\n
First base: Matt Olson<\/p>\n
Second base: Ozzie Albies<\/p>\n
Shortstop: Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/p>\n
Third base: Austin Riley<\/p>\n
Right field: Ronald Acu\u00f1a, Jr.<\/p>\n
Center field: Micheal Harris II<\/p>\n
Left field: Mike Yastrzemski<\/p>\n
Designated hitter: Jurickson Profar<\/p>\n
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Bench: Jonah Heim, Sandy Le\u00f3n, Eli White, Jorge Mateo<\/p>\n
The only slight surprise here is Le\u00f3n. Although Atlanta\u2019s schedule to start the season isn\u2019t menacing as the start to the 2025 campaign, the Braves do play 13 games in-a-row to open the season, including an eight-game west coast road trip, meaning that Atlanta could opt to give Le\u00f3n a start or at least have him as an emergency option on the bench.<\/p>\n
Heim\u2019s ability to switch-hit and All-Star pedigree means Atlanta could carry three catchers on the 26-man roster once Sean Murphy returns from injury.With Baldwin likely to see a good-bit of time at DH, Le\u00f3n gives the team the third catcher to open the season and allow the team to test-run their possible future position player roster breakdown.<\/p>\n
Wild Cards: Kyle Farmer, Luke Williams, Chadwick Tromp, Nacho Alvarez, Jr.<\/p>\n
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Farmer was a late addition to Braves camp, and has played all-over the infield in his career with 300 career games at shortstop, 200+ games at second base, more than 160 appearances at third base and 19 games behind the plate. Yes, Farmer caught 15 games for the Reds in 2019 (although that was also the last time he appeared behind the dish).<\/p>\n
Farmer could take the place of Le\u00f3n or Mateo but Mateo\u2019s speed and defense at shortstop could make him the more valuable of the two until shortstop Ha-Seong Kim returns from injury.<\/p>\n
That note about Atlanta playing 13 consecutive games? Well, chances are at least one of those games will be a blow-out and that\u2019s where Williams shines. Williams can play in the infield and outfield and is an excellent baserunner, but offers nothing with the bat. But as a position-player pitcher, he adds marginal value and being the 13th position player and 14th pitcher with the Braves is a roll he knows well.<\/p>\n
Tromp could be an option as a third catcher to start the season over Le\u00f3n after returning to the organization in the off-season. It would be a familiar role for the well-liked Tromp, who could get the call should the organization want the respected Le\u00f3n to work with the next player on this list at Triple-A.<\/p>\n
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Nacho Alvarez, Jr. spent time with the catchers in the early days of Spring Training and that\u2019s an interesting development for his long-term future with the Braves. If Atlanta is committed to see if he is capable of picking-up the position with an eye toward a hyper-valuable back-up infielder\/third-catcher role at the big league level in the future, he seems almost certain to be ticketed to Gwinnett.<\/p>\n
Pitchers<\/p>\n
Starting pitchers: Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Joey Wentz<\/p>\n
Bullpen: Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suarez, Dylan Lee, Tyler Kinley, Aaron Bummer, Dylan Dodd, Joel Payamps<\/p>\n
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Again with that whole 13 games-in-a-row thing. With Holmes, Elder, Wentz and Dodd all out of options, they all make the team out of Spring Training with the Braves starting the year with a six-man rotation and Dodd who could cover multiple innings in the bullpen. Payamps, who\u2019d been a been a highly-effective reliever until struggling for much of last season, gets the nod as the fourth right-hander in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
Wild Cards: Hurston Waldrep, Jose Suar\u00e9z, James Karinchak, Mart\u00edn Per\u00e9z, Hayden Harris, Daysbel Hern\u00e1ndez<\/p>\n
Karinchak\u2019s addition to the Opening Day roster was tempting but may be more sentimental than practical given the team brought back Payamps on a $2.25M deal after a brief audition late in the 2025 regular season. Karinchak, who was a standout reliever with the Cleveland Guardians, has had his career derailed by injuries and hasn\u2019t pitched in the big leagues since 2023.<\/p>\n
Suar\u00e9z, who was DFA\u2019d by Atlanta but was re-claimed by the team prior to Spring Training, and Dodd could be in a battle for the third lefty in the bullpen or six starter with Wentz.<\/p>\n
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Waldrep and Per\u00e9z are two players on opposite sides of their careers who face similar challenges to the Opening Day roster. With Holmes, Elder and Wentz all out of options, Waldrep could find himself starting the year at Triple-A just because he has options left. If he shines in Spring Training or if an injury to any of the other starters arises, he could find himself with the big league team to start the season. Based on last season, he\u2019s may be one of the team\u2019s five best starting pitchers, but future roster flexibility may be more important than a few weeks of big league starts.<\/p>\n
A late-in-the-off-season signing, Per\u00e9z was solid last year in 11 games with the White Sox. He has been an average back-end starter for most of his career outside of his stand-out All-Star season in 2022. Now 34, he\u2019s made 20-or-more starts eight times in his 14-year big league career, and if healthy, could be an alternative to Wentz as a left-handed starter.<\/p>\n
Harris offers another third-lefty option with his unique pitch mix, but barring a bombastic performance this spring, he seems likely to be an option for later in the season. Hern\u00e1ndez has a big arm and bigger control issues and seems to be on the outside of the Opening Day roster bubble.<\/p>\n
Will the Opening Day roster shake out like this? Not of the team finds that mysterious post-season quality starting pitcher or if a few injury bugs bite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Valentine\u2019s Day. Here\u2019s to hearts, roses, chocolates and Atlanta Braves baseball. Well, one out of four ain\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2269,46,662,5,4720,13458,919,51,5931,13223,11548,663,640,633,75288,25155,38015,63453,9098,1710,7530,915,813,5056,9978,7485,370,541,3617,119,4,1132,104,5171,80,9684,34903,656,280,773,151,811,1106,396],"class_list":{"0":"post-572510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-aaron-bummer","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-austin-riley","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-bryce-elder","13":"tag-chadwick-tromp","14":"tag-chris-sale","15":"tag-cleveland-guardians","16":"tag-drake-baldwin","17":"tag-dylan-dodd","18":"tag-dylan-lee","19":"tag-eli-white","20":"tag-grant-holmes","21":"tag-ha-seong-kim","22":"tag-happy-valentines-day","23":"tag-hayden-harris","24":"tag-hurston-waldrep","25":"tag-james-karinchak","26":"tag-joel-payamps","27":"tag-joey-wentz","28":"tag-jonah-heim","29":"tag-jorge-mateo","30":"tag-jurickson-profar","31":"tag-kim-klement","32":"tag-kyle-farmer","33":"tag-luke-williams","34":"tag-martin-perez","35":"tag-matt-olson","36":"tag-mauricio-dubon","37":"tag-mike-yastrzemski","38":"tag-mlb","39":"tag-ozzie-albies","40":"tag-raisel-iglesias","41":"tag-reynaldo-lopez","42":"tag-robert-suarez","43":"tag-ronald-acuna","44":"tag-sandy-leon","45":"tag-sean-murphy","46":"tag-spencer","47":"tag-spencer-strider","48":"tag-spring-training","49":"tag-starting-pitcher","50":"tag-tyler-kinley","51":"tag-white-sox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}