Didier Fuentes Emerges As Young Braves Power Arm


Years of prospect graduations, coupled with a ban on signing international amateurs in 2019 and 2020, have thinned the Braves’ farm system.
Atlanta has begun to build back in recent seasons, striking gold with 2021 second-round righthander Spencer Schwellenbach, 2022 third-round catcher Drake Baldwin and investing draft capital in high school pitchers including Cam Caminiti, Owen Murphy and JR Ritchie.
Under the radar, 19-year-old Colombian righthander Didier Fuentes also has emerged.
An unheralded signee in 2022, Fuentes now ranks No. 11 in the system heading into 2025. Last season, he recorded a 2.74 ERA in 75.2 innings for Low-A Augusta, striking out 98 and walking 21.
He excels with a fastball/slider combo that has generated many swings and misses in the Carolina League. He needs another pitch—a splitter is the leading contender—if he’s going to eventually be a standout major league starter, but he represents a ball of clay because of his youth and inexperience.
The Braves have as much presence in Colombia as any organization. They have two other Colombian righthanders ranked in their Top 30 Prospects—Davis Polo and Rayven Antonio—and once upon a time they were the signing organization for Julio Teheran, the top arm in the 2007 international class.
Teheran was a rotation staple in Atlanta from 2013 to 2019 and made six consecutive Opening Day starts. He also starred for Colombia in the World Baseball Classic, and along with Jose Quintana represents the most successful major league pitchers in the nation’s history.
NOTES
— The Braves signed electric Dominican righthander Raudy Reyes on Jan. 15. The 16-year-old has been clocked at 102 mph, according to the Braves.
“With Raudy, he’s a unicorn,” Latin American scouting director Johnathan Cruz said. “There’s no other way to shape that. By a couple days, he’s not in the next year’s signing class (based on eligibility cut-off dates)—he’s so young.
“In the scouting process with Raudy, obviously he didn’t have to work with putting his secondary pitch . . . he just had to throw fastballs. So we’re going to elevate his game to another facet here when he reports with us.”
— Three Braves prospects to follow closely as the upcoming season progresses are hard-throwing righthander Blake Burkhalter, shortstop Diego Benitez and righty Jeremy Reyes.