{"id":79546,"date":"2025-08-18T09:03:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=79546"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:03:47","slug":"report-joey-wentz-is-making-quite-the-case-for-the-braves-2026-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=79546","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Joey Wentz is making quite the case for the Braves 2026 roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sportstalkatl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dct25081622-atl-at-cle.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sportstalkatl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dct25081622-atl-at-cle.jpg?w=1000&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sportstalkatl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dct25081622-atl-at-cle.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sportstalkatl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dct25081622-atl-at-cle.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 768w\" alt=\"MLB: AUG 16 Braves at Guardians\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>All of a sudden, the Braves are playing like everybody thought they would to begin the season, winners of four straight and seven of their last eight. Even more remarkable, they are doing it with all five members of their Opening Day rotation on the IL and\u00a0Spencer Strider\u00a0struggling severely.<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta\u2019s bats have finally woken up, led by Michael Harris II,\u00a0who has completely turned his season around since the All-Star break.\u00a0But they\u2019ve also gotten some pretty outstanding help from a few unsuspecting starting pitchers.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday,\u00a0Hurston Waldrep made his third appearance for the big-league club, tossing six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in a 2-0 win over the Guardians. The 2023 first-round selection has made some pretty significant adjustments to his repertoire, and the results have him looking like a staple of the Braves rotation for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps even more surprising has been the emergence of\u00a0Joey Wentz. Once a promising Braves farmhand, Wentz was shipped to Detroit nearly half a decade ago but never lived up to expectations with the Tigers, Pirates, or Twins. Now back in Atlanta out of sheer necessity, with the Braves desperate for pitching depth, Wentz has suddenly begun to flash the potential that once made him a top prospect.<\/p>\n<p>After tossing a one-run gem over six innings last night, Wentz now boasts a 2.60 ERA, 3.11 FIP, and 0.952 WHIP over 34.2 innings with Atlanta.<\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=SportsTalkATL&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1956888516144562635&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportstalkatl.com%2Fjoey-wentz-is-making-quite-the-case-for-the-braves-2026-roster%2F&amp;sessionId=2a41f8e10f4d75ac51003b610cee6d9320ec7085&amp;siteScreenName=SportsTalkATL&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1956888516144562635\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>With three more years of team control left on his contract, Joey Wentz could turn out to be a massive pickup by the Braves.<\/p>\n<p>The rotation concerns going into 2026 are real.\u00a0AJ Smith-Shawver\u00a0is going to miss all of next season,\u00a0Grant Holmes\u00a0could as well, and it\u2019s unlikely the club views\u00a0Reynaldo Lopez\u00a0as a starting pitcher anymore. Having a guy like Wentz in the fold, who is cheap and has experience as both a starter and reliever, is a tremendous commodity, especially if he\u2019s pitching like this.<\/p>\n<p>As we\u2019ve seen over the last several seasons, it takes 9-10 starting pitchers to make it through the year. Joey Wentz may not be in the conversation for the 2026 Opening Day rotation, but he could be a valuable depth piece next year that can start in a pinch when needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All of a sudden, the Braves are playing like everybody thought they would to begin the season, winners of four straight and seven of their last eight&#8230;. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>REPORT: Joey Wentz is making quite the case for the Braves 2026 roster - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=79546\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"REPORT: Joey Wentz is making quite the case for the Braves 2026 roster - 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