The Braves are feeling good after sweeping the Mets. They’ve got to keep it going in the right direction and they have to avoid slipping up against the Marlins.
The last time the Atlanta Braves saw the Miami Marlins, the Braves were absolutely limping back home after they had gone 0-7 to start the season on the road against the Padres and Dodgers. Atlanta took out their frustrations on the Marlins with a 10-0 win for their first victory of the season before Cal Quantrill brought the Braves back down to earth with a dominant performance the very next day.
The final game of that series got rained out and ever since then the Marlins have been going through the typical ups-and-downs of a team that seems destined to finish in last place — meaning that there are a lot more ‘downs’ than there are ‘ups’. Miami’s offense hasn’t been doing so hot, as they’re sitting on a .238/.314/.369 slash line as a team with a 92 wRC+. The Braves aren’t doing much better than that at the plate but Atlanta at least has potential and projections on their side. This is probably as good as it’s going to get for Miami, as you would imagine is going to be the case when Dane Myers, Kyle Stowers and Otto Lopez are your two batting leaders in fWAR at the moment. While each of these players is talented, that’s not exactly who you want to build your franchise around.
Meanwhile, while Miami’s offense is mediocre, their pitching staff is probably the unit that is responsible for keeping them in the doldrums. Miami’s pitching staff as a whole has an ERA- of 119, a FIP- of 110 and an xFIP- of 108. Each of these stats consider 100 to be league average and not only are the Marlins North of 100 in each of those stats, they’re near the floor of MLB in those starts as well. We’ll talk more about their pitching staff below but yeah, this team is in last place for good reason. It’s up to the Braves to go down to South Beach and take care of business so that they don’t slip following their impressive sweep of the Mets earlier this week.
Friday, June 20, 7:10 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Didier Fuentes (MLB Debut)
I’ll let Garrett Spain’s minor league recap from a few days ago take it from here:
It’s difficult to find new ways to describe how incredible Didier Fuentes has been. Three days shy of his 20th birthday he made his Triple-A debut and was clearly the best player on the field for Gwinnett. It was our first chance to get full Statcast data on Fuentes and it was no surprise to find that he was impressive. In the first inning Fuentes topped out at 98.4 mph with 17 inches of induced vertical break, threw a curveball at 2700 rpm, and threw a splitter at 90 mph and 1128 RPM. Triple-A is typically the level that guys with dominant fastballs have to start figuring out different ways of getting hitters out, but at least for this one start Fuentes was able to rely on his to be the backbone of his arsenal…Fuentes is really an astonishing talent and there is no reason the Braves shouldn’t give him a chance to prove himself in the major leagues if the need presents itself.
The need has presented itself and now Didier Fuentes is getting a chance to prove himself.
RHP Janson Junk (5 G, 22.2 IP, 22.5 K%, 2.2 BB%, 2.78 ERA, 67 ERA-, 1.56 FIP, 40 FIP-, 0.7 fWAR)
For the first time since 2023, Janson Junk is set up to make a big league start. Now granted, he doesn’t have a ton of experience making big league starts to begin with (he’s made a grand total of seven starts since making his major league debut in 2021) but the Marlins needed a replacement for the injured Max Meyer and he’s been deployed exclusively as a long reliever so far this season so it makes sense that the Marlins would just decide to bring him in as a starter for the time being.
Anyways, Junk has been pretty effective for the Marlins so far this season. Outside of giving up five runs over four innings to the Pirates on June 9, Junk has been reliable for Miami. He went 5.2 innings in his last outing and kept the Nationals off of the scoreboard while he was out there. That was the second time this season where Junk had pitched at least four innings without giving up any runnings and that aforementioned start against Pittsburgh was the only real blip that he’s had this season.
Saturday, June 21, 4:10 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Grant Holmes (14 GS, 79.1 IP, 28.1 K%, 10.4 BB%, 3.97 ERA, 97 ERA-, 4.44 FIP, 113 FIP-, 0.3 fWAR)
Grant Holmes has fallen into a pretty steady groove and I’ll leave it up to you as to whether or not you’re happy with it or not. He’s give up three runs in each of his past four starts and each of those starts have been of varying quality. His most recent one was the best of the bunch as he only gave up two hits and two walks while striking out 15 and pitching into the seventh inning. Yeah, he still gave up three runs but that’s certainly a quality performance from Holmes. Hopefully he’ll be able to keep it going as he rolls into Miami for the first time since an underwhelming start there last September.
RHP Eury Pérez (2 GS, 7 IP, 14.7 K%, 14.7 BB%, 6.43 ERA, 155 ERA-, 3.78 FIP, 95 FIP-, 0.1 fWAR)
Eury Pérez can probably relate to what Didier Fuentes is going through, as Pérez also made his big league debut shortly after turning 20 years old. Pérez didn’t exactly set the world on fire in his big league debut and the Braves blew him up when they saw him for the first time as he gave up six runs while only recording one out. The first of those runs was every Marlins fan’s favorite visual: Ronald Acuña Jr. hitting a leadoff home run against Miami.
Anyways, Pérez is looking to find a groove as this is only his third start back since returning from recovery from Tommy John surgery and we’ll see if the Braves can figure out what he’s got going on with that fastball/slider/curveball combo he’s got in his arsenal.
Sunday, June 22, 1:40 p.m. ET (FanDuel Sports South/Southeast)
RHP Bryce Elder (11 GS, 60.2 IP 20.1 K%, 7.5 BB%, 4.45 ERA, 109 ERA-, 4.61 FIP, 118 FIP-, 0.1 fWAR)
The Enigma has returned! Elder’s follow-up start after pitching eight incredible innings in San Francisco against the Giants was a source of major intrigue as everybody wanted to see what Elder would do for an encore. In true Elder fashion, he came home against the Rockies and got tagged for four runs and was ran from the game in the fourth inning. Just when you (a.k.a. me) think you’ve got a good handle on what to expect from Elder, he gives us a start like that. Anyways, hopefully we’ll see him return to the form where he can eat a handful of innings while keeping the Braves competitive on the road.
RHP Sandy Alcantara (14 GS, 68.0 IP, 18.1 K%, 10.5 BB%, 6.88 ERA, 166 ERA-, 4.86 FIP, 121 FIP-, 0.1 fWAR)
This is not the same Alcantara that we saw before he went under the knife for Tommy John surgery. Back in 2022, Alcantara pitched at least eight innings in 14 of the 32 starts he made that season — and six of those were complete games! So far in 2025, the deepest he’s gotten into any game has been the sixth inning and he’s only managed to make it through six innings three times through 14 starts this season. He also hasn’t been terribly effective for the Marlins either, as he’s routinely gotten bopped for a handful of runs before leaving the game.
With that being said, Alcantara has ben in a solid stretch over his past three starts where he’s gone six innings in two of those three starts and has given up two runs at the most in those aforementioned three starts as well. There’s a indication that he’s starting to figure it out and hopefully he doesn’t put it all together and rediscover his ace form once the Braves come around.