What was perhaps the most important lesson JR Ritchie learned Thursday in Washington?
“Honestly, the biggest thing is that big-league hitters are really good,” Ritchie said Tuesday in the clubhouse at Truist Park.
Oh, to be young again.
The 22-year-old Ritchie, one of the Braves’ most promising prospects, takes the mound for his second career MLB start Wednesday when he and the Braves face the Tigers at Truist Park in Ritchie’s first MLB home start. Ritchie is coming off a victory against the Nationals at Nationals Park in which he allowed two runs in seven innings.
It wasn’t guaranteed that Ritchie would get that opportunity this week with some of the Braves’ rotation plans in flux.
“Got back to Atlanta, they pulled me in, they said, ‘Hey, we want to use you against Detroit. We’re not really sure how, but we’re gonna figure it out,’” Ritchie said. “And then a couple days later, came to me, ‘Hey, want you to start on Wednesday.’ Obviously, happy to do it. Really cool opportunity.”
Ritchie, the No. 2 prospect in the Braves’ organization according to MLB Pipeline, might not be a prospect for long. With starter Reynaldo López having temporarily moved to the bullpen and Spencer Strider still not back from a short stint on the injured list (he should return sooner rather than later), Ritchie might not be limited to two starts with the Braves before a return to the minors — if he returns there at all.
And whether he pitches well or not Wednesday in a matchup that features Tigers ace Tarik Skubal also taking the mound, Ritchie might be in it for the long haul despite his age and inexperience.
“He’s a sharp kid. He’s got a really good feel for a kid his age. Real great composure, high baseball IQ, it’s pretty impressive for a 22-year-old kid. He’s got the makings of a starter,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “You see young kids with talented arms, but sometimes the aptitude isn’t enough to be a starter long term. It takes a lot of aptitude to be a starter, to navigate lineups multiple times and that type of thing, and guys get weeded out at some point. But JR has got all the makings of a starter long term in this game.”
Weiss said Ritchie has made a good first impression.
“He’s got the weapons for left-handed hitters, right-handed hitters. He’s got the mentality, the composure, the aptitude, all those things,” Weiss said. “There’s a lot of things in order with this kid. And the league’s gonna start game-planning for him and all that stuff and he’s gonna have to counterpunch, but he’s got the weapons to do that.”
Ritchie has pitched in 53 games in his professional career since the Braves chose him No. 35 overall in the first round of the 2022 MLB draft. He has moved through the system quickly, making stops in Rome, Augusta, Columbus and Gwinnett along the way.
For three games with the Single-A Augusta GreenJackets in 2022, Drake Baldwin was behind the plate catching the right-handed Ritchie. They revisited those games before Ritchie’s debut last week in Washington.
“He threw a bunch of strikes and he had good stuff. He had a completely different arsenal when I caught him our first year in the minor leagues, but he just had the poise on the mound that looked like a big leaguer and kind of knew it was gonna happen from way back then. He’s been doing it ever since,” Baldwin said Tuesday.
Ritchie made 11 starts for Triple-A Gwinnett in 2025. In one outing he fanned 11 batters. In five others he pitched scoreless baseball.
It also just so happened that when Ritchie was donning a Stripers uniform, Chris Sale was around the Lawrenceville facility working his way back from a rib injury.
“You can even ask my wife, I’ve been talking about (Ritchie) since last summer,” Sale said. “Every time I showed up (in Gwinnett) he was doing something, was in the weight room or he was doing something to get better at baseball. And that’s always gonna put some chips in my bag for me.”
Sale said he admired how Ritchie bounced back from adversity in his MLB debut.
“Even into his first start — you throw your first major league pitch and you’re supposed to be excited about it, and it gets launched into the seats? To overcome that is big for anybody,” Sale said. “I had a start in Anaheim where I did the exact same thing, and it came completely off the rails. So, for him to kind of buckle down and get his feet underneath him and stay poised and to keep competing was impressive.
“Getting through seven (innings) in your debut, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. Hopefully there’s more where that came from.”
It was a bit of a foregone conclusion that Ritchie would be in the mix for the Braves in 2026. He threw 12 innings during spring training, and it was apparent in how he carried himself, prepared and performed that his MLB debut wasn’t far away.
With that out of the way, the next first on the docket is a start at Truist Park. It doesn’t appear it will be his last.
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