Nacho

Alvarez Jr.

Stratton was always facing an uphill battle at earning a spot in the Braves’ Opening Day bullpen and surrendering six earned runs over 1 1/3 innings during Grapefruit League play sealed the deal for him. Alvarez will open as an everyday player at Triple-A Gwinnett and will most certainly see time with the Braves at some point in 2026. The Braves now have 62 players remaining on the major league side of camp.

Alvarez hasn’t shown a lot of potential at the plate, but being able to serve as a viable third catcher would help his chances of making it as a bench player. The 22-year-old has hit .216/.277/.298 in 240 plate appearances since debuting with the Braves in 2024. As things stand now, it’s probably between him, Brett Wisely and Kyle Farmer for the last spot on Atlanta’s bench.

Valdez has been the talk of the desert this fall, slashing .370/.519/.870 with eight homers and 26 RBI across 18 games. The 21-year-old slugger’s emergence gives the Pirates another potential high-impact bat to pair with blue-chip prospects Konnor Griffin and Edward Florentino, who will enter next season among the top-ranked talents in baseball. Here’s the full lineup: Nick Morabito (CF), Seaver King (2B), Parks Harber (1B), Valdez (RF), Owen Ayers (C), Nacho Alvarez Jr. (3B), Chris Suero (DH), Starlyn Caba (SS) Josh Adamczewski (LF) and Karson Milbrandt (P).

Alvarez registered five batted balls with exit velocities north of 99 mph in this one, including three that topped 104 mph. He’s collected 11 hits over his last seven games and is now batting .315 with a .964 OPS on the fall circuit. The 22-year-old will head to spring training competing for a spot on Atlanta’s bench as a versatile utility option, which could translate to some appeal in deeper NL-only formats.

Alvarez sat out Sunday’s series finale against Detroit with a thumb laceration that he suffered at some point during an epic two-homer explosion during Saturday’s contest. The 22-year-old rookie infielder will draw the majority of the starts at the hot corner for Atlanta over the final week of the season.

It’s highly unusual to see a young player retreat to the bench following a two-homer explosion, but that’s the case in this one as Alvarez apparently cut his thumb at some point during the late stages of Saturday’s contest in Detroit. The 22-year-old rookie infielder tallied three hits, including his first two big-league homers and a game-tying single during the comeback win. He’s day-to-day heading into the final week of the season. It’ll be Vidal Bruján drawing a start at the hot corner in his place.

Alvarez went 59 games without a round-tripper at the outset of his big-league career before going deep twice during Saturday afternoon’s slugfest in Detroit. It was a memorable contest for the 22-year-old rookie as he kicked off the unexpected power barrage by taking Tigers starter Keider Montero deep in the third inning before taking relief ace Kyle Finnegan deep in the eighth. He had a chance to be the hero for Atlanta with two outs in the ninth and managed to come through with a game-tying single to right field.

Bruján is hitting .231/.282/.282 in 85 plate appearances this season, so he does not move the needle for fantasy purposes. Expect Nacho Alvarez Jr. to get the start at the hot corner in game 2.

Riley is eligible to come off the injured list on Thursday, but it sounds like he’ll be out for at least another week. Nacho Alvarez Jr. has been filling in at third base.

The 22-year-old infielder was held out of the lineup on Thursday due to soreness in his side, though he did appear as a pinch-runner. He’s back in there at the hot corner and batting eighth against Marlins’ right-hander Edward Cabrera on Friday evening in Atlanta.