Braves’ Reynaldo Lopez-Didier Fuentes bullpen dilemma could cost Atlanta games until resolved originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Atlanta Braves have been one of the best teams in baseball up to this point, and there is no question about that. However, there have been some struggles at times, which is something every team goes through during the course of a season.

Atlanta has done a fair amount of shuffling between the bullpen and the starting rotation. A prime example is moving starter Reynaldo López to the bullpen at the end of April.

“We see him as a starter,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “He’s working through some things, delivery wise, that type of thing, and he’s getting right there. And when he’s right, he’s one of our best starters. He was our No. 2 coming out of camp, even with some of the issues at the end of spring training.”

The Braves have also moved Didier Fuentes into a bullpen role, despite him spending his entire minor league career as a starter.

“Didier Fuentes gave the Atlanta Braves another clutch inning out of the bullpen on Friday night, helping set up the walk-off win in extras. He pitched a scoreless inning and picked up a strikeout, working around the automatic runner on second base and a hit batter to keep the Red Sox off the board. He wasn’t originally in the plans for the night, but when they had to pivot, he was ready,” SI’s Harrison Smajovits wrote.

It is valuable for the Braves to have pitchers like López and Fuentes in the bullpen, but using both as long relievers can also create challenges on certain nights.

“Lopez is lined up to provide length behind Holmes tomorrow. There’s a lot of value in having Fuentes and Lopez in the pen. But carrying both at the same time seems challenging and may lead to more nights of the pen being short,” Braves beat writer Mark Bowman wrote.

The issue with Fuentes specifically is that the Braves are using him somewhere between a long reliever and a potential spot starter. Because of that, they can’t overextend him in the bullpen in case he is needed to start.

For López, the same applies—he is another converted starter being used in long relief, meaning he also has to be managed carefully in case he is needed early in games. Having two pitchers in similar roles can create roster flexibility issues, and it was evident Saturday night when Martín Pérez had to make an unexpected relief appearance, disrupting his scheduled start for Monday. If Atlanta can’t get a grasp on these situations, it will lead to more lost games for the Braves.

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