The Atlanta Braves have Major League Baseball’s best record (20-9) and a top-flight rookie pitcher in JR Ritchie ready to keep it going.
Ritchie, 22, appears to be another addition to Atlanta’s long line of premier pitchers. The right-hander, ranked as the Braves’ top prospect by MLB.com, won his debut last week and manager Walt Weiss says he is now in the rotation.
“We wanted him to be an option in the picture moving forward,” Weiss told Chad Bishop of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It’s a pretty picture at present. The Braves’ 3.13 team earned run average leads MLB. Ritchie contributed by allowing two runs across seven innings (2.57 ERA) in his MLB debut against the Washington Nationals.
It didn’t start well. James Wood hit his very first pitch for a home run.
“One pitch into it, I was kind of like, ‘Oh no,’” Ritchie told reporters. “But after that, I bounced back really well. I stayed with my gameplan. I was really happy about that. Yeah, this will always be a very, very special day for me.”
Weiss was impressed.
“Kid’s got a lot of weapons man, for right and left handed hitters,” he said. “He’s in total control out there. That’s got to shake you up a little bit, first pitch you throw in the big leagues and it gets hit for a homer. But right back on the mound and attacking with all his stuff.”
Ritchie is replacing 2024 All-Star Reynaldo Lopez, who will pitch in relief. Weiss said that is to enable the 32-year-old to work on some delivery issues in the bullpen and regain confidence after two sub-par outings. Lopez made only one start in 2025 before needing right shoulder surgery.
Ritchie’s Riches
He got rich as a first-round draft pick in 2022 because of his rich assortment of pitches as a high school phenom. As a junior and senior at from Bainbridge High School (WA), he had a combined 13-0 record and 128 strikeouts over 59 innings.
Ritchie got $2,397,500 to sign as the 35th pick. After only 20+ innings into his career, he tore a ligament in his elbow and had Tommy John surgery. He returned in 2024, but wasn’t fully back until last season when he had an 8-6 record and 2.64 ERA over 140 innings, holding opponents to a .175 batting average.
In Spring Training this year, Ritchie struck out 14 over 12 innings and allowed 3 runs (2.25 ERA). He was even better when sent to Triple-A Gwinnett (GA) to open the season, going 3-1and allowing three runs over 27 1/3 innings (0.99 ERA).
He’s doing it with an nice assortment of pitches without being flamethrower. His four-seam fastball is in the 93-95 mph range and he gets groundouts with a two-seamer with more movement.
Ritchie’s curve, slider and changeup all thrown in the mid to low 80s, appear from the same motion as the fast stuff, adding deception to all the offerings. The slider has good late break and the change has movement, too.
Braves’ Hall Of Fame Pitchers
Ritchie is the first pitcher in franchise history to work at least seven innings, fan seven and allow no more than two runs in his big league debut.
Let’s not get a ticket to Cooperstown ready for him just yet. But a look at Braves pitchers in the Baseball Hall of Fame shows a remarkable franchise history.
Current ace Chris Sale is among the Braves’ group of greats. He has a 150-89 record for three teams since 2010. The 37-year-old has a 30-9 record and 2.45 ERA since joining Atlanta in 2024, when he went 18-3 and won the NL Cy Young Award.
These pitchers all played for the franchise when it had various nicknames in the late 1800s in Boston, then as the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta.
- Albert Spalding: He and his brother took $800 and started what became a multi-million dollar sporting goods conglomerate. That was after Al hit .313 as an outfielder-pitcher for teams that became the Braves (1871-75) and Chicago Cubs (1876-77). With Boston, he had a 204-53 record, 2.23 ERA and 12 saves. His career mark was 251-65 with a 2.13 ERA.
- Harry Wright: Had a 4-4 record on mound for Boston (1871-74), also played the outfield and compiled a 479-247 record with six pennants as manager (1871-81). Overall record as MLB manager: 1,225-885).
- Charles (Old Hoss) Radbourn: Had 78 wins for Boston over four years (1886-89); career record was 310-194 for four teams (1881-91)
- John Clarkson: Went 149-82 in middle of his career (1888-92) for Boston on way to 328-178 career record.
- Charles (Kid) Nichols: Had six seasons of 30+ wins and 330 of his 362 career victories for Boston (1890-1901).
- Cy Young: At age 44, went 4-5 for the 1911 Boston Braves; incredible 511-315 for five teams overall (1890-1911).
- Vic Willis: 151-147, 2.82 ERA for Boston (1898-1905); 249-205 and 2.673 ERA overall for three clubs (1898-1910)
- Ed Walsh: Went 0-1 to finish his career with 1917 Braves after compiling a 1.81 ERA with 195 wins previous 14 years for Chicago White Sox.
- Burleigh Grimes: Went 3-5 for 1930 Braves; 270-212 for six clubs (1916-34).
- Rube Marquard: Finished career with 25-39 record for Braves (1922-25); 201-177 for four teams overall (1908-25).
- Warren Spahn: Had 356 of 363 career wins and 356 of 363 career hits for Boston (1946-52) and Milwaukee (1953-64) Braves to start 21-year career.
- Hoyt Wilhelm: Joined Braves at age 46, went 8-4 with 17 saves (1969-71). Retired at 49 with 143-122 record, 228 saves, 2.52 ERA (1951-72) for nine teams.
- Gaylord Perry: Went 8-9 at age 42 for 1981 Braves. For eight teams overall, had 314-265 record (1962-83).
- Phil Niekro: Opened career with 268-230 record and 29 saves for Milwaukee (1964-65) and Atlanta (1966-83) Braves; 318-274 for four teams (1964-87).
- Bruce Sutter: Finished in Atlanta (1985-88) with 10-11 record, 40 saves; for three teams over 12 seasons, 68-71, 300 saves, 2.83 ERA (1976-88).
- Tom Glavine: 682 career games, all starts; 244-187 for Braves (1987-2002); 305-203 for career (1987-2008); 4-3, 2.16 ERA in four World Series and 14-13 record in 35 post-season starts.
- Greg Maddux: 194-88, 2.63 ERA for Braves (1993-03); overall 355-227 for four teams (1986-2008); 2.09 ERA in three World Series; 11-14, 3.27 ERA in 35 post-season games.
- John Smoltz: 210-147, 156 saves for Braves (1988-2008), 213-155 overall (1988-2009); in 41 postseason games had 15-4 record, 4 saves, 2.67 ERA.
The Atlanta Braves’ 2026 Future
The Braves’ 76-86 record in 2025 snapped a streak of seven straight playoff appearances. Injuries to slugger Ronald Acuna Jr., and a slew of pitchers were mostly to blame.
Acuna is back, 2025 NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin is hitting .311, second baseman Ozzie Albies (.316), center-fielder Michael Harris II (.329) DH Dominic Smith (.349) and first baseman Matt Olson (.296, 8 homers, 25 RBI) are raking, too.
Atlanta still has eight pitchers on the injured list. Starters Hurston Waldrep, Spencer Strider, and Spencer Schwellenbach are expected to return this summer. Until then, Sale, Bryce Elder (3-1, 1.95 ERA), Grant Holmes, Martin Perez and Ritchie look like a solid rotation. Off-season addition Robert Suarez (2-0, 0.71 ERA,3 saves) is filling in for sidelined closer Raisel Iglesias.
The Braves have other hard throwers like 20-year-old Didier Fuentes and Hayden Harris in the system ready to help.
The Atlanta Braves are off to a good start and appear to have the depth on offense and pitching to keep it going – especially if rookie JR Ritchie does too.
