ATLANTA -- The Braves’ bullpen picture may end up being defined by the arms everyone expected, but the most valuable reliever in the group has been the one few people would have guessed: Didier Fuentes.
Raisel Iglesias made the All-Star team. Dylan Lee could have been there.
Robert Suarez likely would have been, too. Still, Fuentes has put together the kind of season that has made him impossible to ignore.
“Most guys his age are living on ramen and sleeping on couches,” Braves ace Chris Sale said. “He’s pitching high-energy, big-leverage innings in the big leagues right now, and doing it at a very high clip.”
Fuentes has been old enough to buy alcohol for less than three months. Even so, if the Braves are celebrating with champagne in October, the 21-year-old right-hander will be part of the reason why. He ranks third among National League relievers with a 1.79 ERA.
“You don’t even think of him being just 21 years old,” Braves utility man Mauricio Dubón said. “He’s going out there against the game’s best lineups and just shoving. He’s a big reason we’re here.”
His rookie numbers only get more striking when you strip away the one start he made. Across 51 appearances, including that start, Fuentes has a 2.27 ERA. In relief alone, he lands in rare air.
FanGraphs shows there have been only 44 pitchers who completed a qualified season at age 21 or younger. Among those with at least 50 relief appearances, Fuentes stacks up like this:
His 1.79 ERA is second only to Huston Street’s 1.72 in 2005. Pedro Martínez is next at 2.26 over 61 appearances for the Dodgers in 1993.
Fuentes also ranks second in strikeout rate at 30.5 percent, behind Byung-Hyun Kim’s 35.7 percent in 2000. Before this season, the only major league experience Fuentes had came from four premature starts last year, forced by Atlanta’s injury issues.
He also owns a 2.0 fWAR, which is tied for seventh among all relievers and tied for fourth in the NL. Entering Sunday, only four NL relievers had been worth more by WAR, and Fuentes and Lee were tied for the team lead.
That kind of production has helped Atlanta build a five-game cushion over the Phillies in the NL East while staying in the hunt for one of the league’s two postseason byes.
And the bullpen’s ceiling may matter even more once October begins.
There has been plenty of attention on how the Braves will piece together innings beyond Chris Sale in a playoff series. After Tyler Mahle worked six strong innings against the Phillies on Sunday, that conversation looks different. He has posted a 1.24 ERA through his first six starts for Atlanta, and he has done it against quality lineups, including the one he faced in Philadelphia.
The Braves may not need a perfect formula from the rest of the rotation. They may just need the right matchups.
AJ Smith-Shawver could handle a lineup once, then Martín Pérez or Grant Holmes could follow. Those three could even be used in any order.
Reynaldo López is another option to “get the plane off the ground” as former Braves skipper Brian Snitker used to say.
However they arrange the innings - with an opener, a piggyback setup or Sale and Mahle taking the ball and going deep - the Braves will lean hard on their high-leverage relievers.
That’s why Sunday mattered beyond the comeback itself. Ronald Acuña Jr. delivered a big game-tying homer in the win over the Phillies, and Lee also snapped a rough stretch by throwing a scoreless inning. The Braves don’t know whether Lee had been tipping pitches or simply needed a breather, but they need him settled when the postseason arrives.
Suarez remains another important piece to watch. He was scheduled to throw a 25-pitch bullpen session on Monday, and if his elbow keeps progressing, he could be activated before the regular season ends.
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