NORTH PORT, Fla. — On Tuesday, before the Braves’ first full-squad workout of spring training, manager Brian Snitker addressed the team. He kept his welcome message pretty standard.
“You know what, some of them guys have been around for a long time and could probably give it,” Snitker said. “It was good. It was a good message, I think. You know, you outline some of the procedures and stuff like that, too, as much as anything.”
So, not a rah-rah speech?
“No,” Snitker said. “That would’ve lasted probably until they got out the door.”
The Braves have been to the postseason seven consecutive years. They hope 2025 is their eighth straight playoff berth.
It all starts here in North Port.
On Tuesday, the entire team worked out together for the first time, though many Braves position players reported early and have been here for at least a week.
“A lot of these guys, they’ll be ready to go by when the games start, and you’re always worried about that,” Snitker said. “But we had such a big group here (early) that they’ve done a lot and been on their legs. It kind of makes me feel a little better when they come early because it’s such a short time (before games). We used to have pitchers and catchers in camp five days and then 10 days of workouts, and you wondered if they were ready. Now it’s five days and four days of workouts, and they’re playing on the fifth.”
As Snitker alluded to, the Braves had their first full-squad workout Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s Grapefruit League opener against the Twins in Fort Myers. It’s not much time to get in shape.
Thankfully, the modern-day player is in great shape upon arriving to camp.
“I mean, they don’t have to be here (early), and if they’re not, they’re working out somewhere,” Snitker said. “But I think just the different places they have to go and the training and what they do. They’re all about baseball now. I say, I watch them in that first batting practice a lot of times and it’s like, ‘These guys probably could go out and play a game right now and be fine. You know, you worry about their arms — we want to be aware of that. And we pick the drills we do, throwing drills are later, closer to games and things like that just so they get the consistent reps doing that.”
Sale on Saturday
Chris Sale will start Saturday’s game in Fort Myers, Snitker said. He’s lined up to do so after throwing live batting practice Monday.
If he’s healthy, Sale almost certainly will be the Braves’ starter March 27 on opening day in San Diego. He’s the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and the obvious choice. There’s really no debate.
Waldrep brings back curveball
Hurston Waldrep, one of the Braves’ top prospects, has added — well, re-added — a curveball to his arsenal.
“So, the focus, when we got rid of it, was to work on the slider — to work on making the slider kind of the forefront of the arsenal and let it make the splitter better, really,” Waldrep said. “So, adding the curveball back just kind of gives me a little better tool to lefties. It fits my fastball really well out of my arm slot, and it just kind of made sense to bring it back.”
The splitter is Waldrep’s dynamite offering. It was the main reason he was drafted in the first round.
How did he go about making the curveball what he wanted?
“So for me, it was about getting the right shape that we wanted, getting the right velocity, movement profile, everything,” Waldrep said. “And then, how are we going to use it? What’s the percentage gonna be? What counts are we going to use it in? It’s not going to be just, ‘Hey, I’m gonna abuse this pitch.’ It’s gonna be, ‘Use it here and there, get ahead of counts, keep hitters off balance.”
Waldrep watched a lot of Gerrit Cole this offseason because of Cole’s pitch mix. He also studied Max Scherzer, who might use his curveball sparingly one start and often the next. He also looked at Justin Verlander.
Those are good players from which to learn.
Smith-Shawver coming into camp ready
AJ Smith-Shawver has been working on a cutter.
“Just trying to mix in another hard pitch,” he said. “Yeah, we’ll see what the final product looks like. You play with things every day and see what you have. But yeah, I’ve been playing with a few things.”
Smith-Shawver started Game 1 of the Wild Card Series in San Diego last season, but it didn’t go well. Still, he can learn from the experience.
He worked on multiple areas this offseason.
“Just location, just kind of fine-tuning some things,” he said. “Whenever you go into the offseason, you kind of look at your last year, see what you can do better and just look at little things that you can improve. Mainly, it was just making sure that the body’s feeling healthy and just staying on top of everything there, and then just fine-tuning some things.”
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