JR Ritchie making major league debut as Braves look to complete stellar road trip at Nationals

The carousel of Braves pitchers has been in full effect the last few days. Reynaldo Lopez’s Tuesday start lasting just one inning depleted the bullpen for Wednesday. That in turn led to Didier Fuentes being called to start Wednesday’s game, moving the rest of the rotation’s starts back a day. But wh

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The carousel of Braves pitchers has been in full effect the last few days.

Reynaldo Lopez’s Tuesday start lasting just one inning depleted the bullpen for Wednesday.

That in turn led to Didier Fuentes being called to start Wednesday’s game, moving the rest of the rotation’s starts back a day. But when Fuentes lasted just three innings and Atlanta was forced to use Martín Pérez, who was scheduled to start Thursday’s series finale in Washington, out of the bullpen, it sent the carousel on another spin.

It landed on another call-up, but this time for a debut. The Braves are promoting 2022 first-round pick JR Ritchie (35th overall pick) to make his first major league appearance as Atlanta looks to win its fifth straight series Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park.

Ritchie, 22, started the season as a top-100 prospect in baseball according to Baseball America (84th), Baseball Prospectus (88th) and MLB Pipeline (90th). He’s also surged up the Braves’ farm system, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 2 prospect in the organization.

The timing is right for a few reasons. Notably, he’s on normal rest after last throwing for Gwinnett last Saturday. But also, he’s been in strong form which makes him a viable candidate for a major league opportunity.

The 2025 season was his breakout as he went all the way from High-A Rome to Triple-A, posting a combined 2.96 ERA over 140 innings. But the right-hander has taken that to an even higher level early this season in Gwinnett. Over five starts with the Stripers, he’s allowed three runs over 27 1/3 innings for a 0.99 ERA. The strikeout numbers (28) are good. The walks (13) are the only real blip on his stat line.

For his debut, Ritchie will be facing a better-than-expected Nationals lineup through 25 games. Washington’s offense is seventh in the majors in home runs (30) and eighth in batting average (.255), scoring 17 combined runs in the last two games against the Braves.

Ritchie’s counterpart on the mound will be Washington’s Cade Cavalli (0-1, 4.12 ERA). A former first-round pick himself by the Nationals in 2020, the right-hander will be making his sixth start of the season and the 17th of his career since debuting in 2022.

Cavalli has yet to allow a homer this season — which could be tested against a Braves lineup which had it third four-homer game of the season Wednesday and is tied for second in the majors with 36 homers — but has allowed a .290 opposing batting average and has battled some control issues with 18 strikeouts to 12 walks in 19 2/3 innings.

It bears mentioning, though, that he had no walks in his last outing, when he needed 92 pitches to get through four innings in Washington’s extra-innings loss to San Francisco Saturday, giving up three runs (one earned) on seven hits with five strikeouts.

This will be Cavalli’s first time facing the Braves, who are the only NL East opponent he hasn’t yet pitched against.