Didier Fuentes added something new on Sunday: a diving sinker that topped out at 99 MPH and ran more than a foot to the arm side. The Braves used the 21-year-old out of the bullpen in the fifth inning, and he answered by handling the kind of spot that can tilt a game before it settles in.
He inherited runners on first and second with nobody out after Tyler Mahle left, then forced the first batter he faced into a double play. Later, he worked around a couple of singles in the seventh. For a pitcher who already had a fastball, slider and splitter, the sight of a hard sinker dropping in as another option was the clearest sign yet that his arsenal is still expanding.
That matters because Fuentes is not being asked to ease into low-pressure innings. He has been working the highest-leverage spots on a first-place team, and his numbers since moving to the bullpen back up the role: a sub-2.00 ERA and a 2.25 FIP over his last 45 appearances. He is already doing more than surviving; he is bridging innings for Atlanta at a time when the rotation outside of Chris Sale often cannot get much past four or five innings before the outing starts to wobble.
The timing is what makes the new pitch stand out. Pitchers do not usually add a fresh weapon in late August, which is why Fuentes drawing one into the mix now is notable. It also keeps alive the larger question around him, because some people see him as the closer of the future while others may be underselling him that way. If he is already this effective with three pitches, the possibility of a fourth could point to something even bigger than a late-inning role.
That is why Fuentes now looks less like a young reliever filling a gap than a pitcher the Braves may eventually trust with much more. If the sinker sticks, Atlanta will not just have another arm for the late innings. It may have a pitcher whose ceiling reaches well beyond them.
