It wasn’t exactly a banner day for JR Ritchie or Owen Murphy last night, as both got knocked around by the Cubs. Ritchie was coming off some really dominant outings in Triple-A, but that didn’t translate at all. They’re also not the only somewhat-promising arms that have floundered for the Braves this year.
- JR Ritchie: 23 years old, 62 2/3 IP, 119 ERA-, 135 FIP-, 116 xFIP-
- Hurston Waldrep: 24 years old, 10 2/3 IP, 200 ERA-, 203 FIP-, 140 xFIP-
- AJ Smith-Shawver: 23 years old, 26 IP, 164 ERA-, 145 FIP-, 136 xFIP-
- Owen Murphy: 22 years old, 9 IP, 119 ERA-, 133 FIP-, 126 xFIP-
Ritchie has gotten a fair bit of rope this year, and done very little with it. His xFIP- isn’t that bad but it’s still not a guy you really want throwing a bunch of innings in the majors, especially
since he’s also been homer-prone. Waldrep had a lot of success down the stretch in meaningless games in 2025 (1.2 fWAR), but his career has been upended by injuries (surprise, surprise). Smith-Shawver at least looked okay at times last year before his arm blew up. Murphy has had very little MLB exposure, but isn’t showing much to dream on, either.
I think in some ways, Ritchie is the most disappointing to date, since he doesn’t have the injuries to blame like Smith-Shawver and Waldrep. I guess I’d say that he might end up with the best career among this quartet, but he’s really gotta figure out a way of pitching that actually works. He has some decent building blocks, but the command is so abominable that it’s almost hard to believe that he was getting 50 FVs and all the other accolades with mechanics in total disarray basically from the jump.
Anyway, what do you think?
