ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 The Atlanta Braves finalized their 26-man roster Wednesday ahead of Friday\u2019s season opener against the Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n
The team has already dealt with several injuries this spring. Most of the sidelined players, except Joey Wentz, who tore his ACL during a Grapefruit League game, are expected to contribute later in the season.<\/p>\n
For now, the Braves must make do with the available roster as they begin a 13-game stretch to open the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n
Catchers (2): Drake Baldwin, Jonah Heim<\/p>\n
This is the catching duo that\u2019ll open the season for Atlanta. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s no surprises here. Sean Murphy is supposed to return in May from hip surgery. It\u2019s too soon to speak with certainty regarding Murphy\u2019s injury, but Heim will be Baldwin\u2019s backup for the time being.<\/p>\n
Infielders (7): Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Mauricio Dub\u00f3n, Austin Riley, Jorge Mateo, Kyle Farmer, Dominic Smith<\/p>\n
Olson, Albies, Riley and Dub\u00f3n are expected to anchor the infield, at least until Ha-Seong Kim returns from his finger injury and resumes duties at shortstop. Farmer and Smith, who signed split contracts Tuesday, add depth to infield. Smith, a left-handed hitter, could also see time at designated hitter against right-handed pitching.<\/p>\n
Outfielders (4): Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., Michael Harris II, Mike Yastrzemski, Eli White<\/p>\n
Jurickson Profar\u2019s season-long suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance reshaped the team\u2019s outfield plans. As a result, Yastrzemski is expected to see most of the playing time in left field, with White providing depth and serving as a pinch-runner when needed.<\/p>\n
Rotation (5): Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Jose Suarez<\/p>\n
This rotation once included Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach and could have featured Hurston Waldrep and Joey Wentz. All were sidelined by injuries this spring, forcing the team to lean on Elder and Su\u00e1rez to round out the rotation behind Sale, L\u00f3pez and Holmes.<\/p>\n
With the team opening the season with 13 straight games, Didier Fuentes could take on a significant role as a long reliever. He impressed this spring, retiring 26 of the 27 batters he faced, including 17 by strikeout.<\/p>\n
Manager Walt Weiss indicated Fuentes will eventually return to Triple-A to continue developing as a starter.<\/p>\n
Bullpen (8): Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suarez, Dylan Lee, Tyler Kinley, Aaron Bummer, Joel Payamps, Osvaldo Bido, Didier Fuentes<\/p>\n
As noted, Fuentes will serve as a long reliever for the time being, while Iglesias and Su\u00e1rez anchor a bullpen projected to perform well this season. Lee, Kinley, Bummer and Payamps had a clear path to the opening-day roster, and Bido, claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees on Tuesday, will help the team navigate its 13-game season-opening stretch.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 The Atlanta Braves finalized their 26-man roster Wednesday ahead of Friday\u2019s season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2394],"tags":[2269,191,46,4166,662,5,192,82242,34005,4720,919,25196,18701,5931,11548,663,640,9098,7530,915,157,9978,541,3617,661,119,4,1954,1132,104,5171,80,921,1106],"class_list":{"0":"post-642859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-aaron-bummer","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-braves","11":"tag-atlantabraves","12":"tag-austin-riley","13":"tag-baseball","14":"tag-braves","15":"tag-braves-26-man-roster","16":"tag-braves-roster","17":"tag-bryce-elder","18":"tag-chris-sale","19":"tag-didier-fuentes","20":"tag-dominic-smith","21":"tag-drake-baldwin","22":"tag-dylan-lee","23":"tag-eli-white","24":"tag-grant-holmes","25":"tag-joel-payamps","26":"tag-jonah-heim","27":"tag-jorge-mateo","28":"tag-jose-suarez","29":"tag-kyle-farmer","30":"tag-matt-olson","31":"tag-mauricio-dubon","32":"tag-michael-harris-ii","33":"tag-mike-yastrzemski","34":"tag-mlb","35":"tag-osvaldo-bido","36":"tag-ozzie-albies","37":"tag-raisel-iglesias","38":"tag-reynaldo-lopez","39":"tag-robert-suarez","40":"tag-ronald-acuna-jr","41":"tag-tyler-kinley"},"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\/642859","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=642859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}