Possible Implications of Braves Calling Up Didier Fuentes

The Atlanta Braves are giving Didier Fuentes another crack at the major league level on Wednesday. He’ll have a chance to give the entire starting rotation an extra day of rest. 

It’s a move that has some implications going forward. How his start goes will impact how they could approach the starting rotation going forward. 

Let’s do a deep dive into some educated guesses of what the Braves could do. 

We’ll start with the easiest scenario: Fuentes pitches well and gets the Braves six or seven innings. In that case, everything went to plan. Everything can stay mapped out as is. In the bigger picture, he would give the Braves a good problem to have, and that's having multiple effective starting pitching options.

Spencer Strider is on the way back. He may only need one more rehab start. Perhaps once he returns, the Braves could move Pérez to a long relief role, and everyone wins. But that's the most optimistic scenario.

If this scenario doesn't happen, that's where it gets tricky. Let's say Fuentes does his job, but he needs a lot of pitches to get through five. To take it a step further, the Braves will have to figure out what to do if he struggles. Keep in mind, they're down an option in the bullpen since they have six starters on the staff right now.

Jose Suarez just pitched three innings after Reynaldo López was run out of the game after one inning of work. He's unavailable, so they're down an additional arm in practice.

If he only goes five innings, it depends on the situation. If it's a tight game, manager Walt Weiss will want to play matchups. Bummer, Payamps and Dodd can all likely pitch another inning of work on no rest. Dylan Lee, Tyler Kinley and Robert Suarez are all available.

In this scenario, Fuentes is likely optioned, and they bring up another arm for the bullpen and keep that dance going. There's a chance this happens even if he deals and gives the team six or seven innings. He won't be available. That would require some serious consideration since he wouldn't be able to be called back up for 15 days, barring an injury.

Then, you have the worst-case scenario, and that's if he can't get beyond three or four innings. A situation like what happened with López on Tuesday happens. Then, they may have to take drastic measures.

Pérez may have to forgo a start and pitch a long relief outing. There is already an established precedent that the Braves are willing to take things day by day with the fifth arm in the rotation.

Naturally, the next question is what happens if Pérez were to pitch a long relief outing? It puts Thursday's series finale in a shaky position. Grant Holmes wouldn't be moved up a day. He's on regular rest for Friday, and he is not far removed from rehabbing a UCL injury.

The next pivot would mean calling up another starting pitcher, which would require an addition to the 40-man roster. Gwinnett opted to use Austin Pope as an opener on Wednesday. JR Ritchie, who hasn't pitched since Saturday, would be available. Carlos Carrasco hasn't pitched since April 16. Running it back with him could be an option.

A dark-horse candidate to bring up would be Anthony Molina. The 24-year-old right-hander, who the Braves claimed on the waiver wire over the offseason, is coming off his first start with Gwinnett. He pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowing an unearned run. He's stretched out to 75 pitches and has a week of rest.

That sounds good, but there is one loophole to close, and that would be who gets the boot from the 40-man roster in this case. There aren't any real DFA candidates other than Pérez, who will have pitched a long-relief outing in this scenario instead of being available to start on Thursday. It would be the same deal as last time. He is unavailable, so they DFA him, and they then see if he sticks around.

If the Braves don't want to do that, and it would be understandable if they don't, they have an alternative. Hurston Waldrep could be transferred to the 60-day injured list. He is recovering from an elbow procedure to remove loose bodies that were discovered during spring training.

Spencer Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day injured list for a similar procedure. AJ Smith-Shawver started on the 15-day and moved him over. If it looks like Waldrep won't be back within 60-days, they could move him over, make room on the 40-man for whoever gets added, and they can keep Pérez on the roster.

There's a lot that could play out. Roster management is sometimes simple, but other times, it's a chess game. If Fuentes is nailed for the Braves, then the best-case scenario happens, and it saves them a huge headache.

However, it doesn't hurt to look ahead and see how the plans could change. That's the fun part about baseball being a marathon: So many different timelines can play out.

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