“My mentality is always to attack the hitters,” Braves flamethrower Didier Fuentes told MLB.com, via translator Javier Román. “I don't focus on anything else or try to do more than what is required, because that can be counterproductive.”
It’s a strategy big league hitters have come to know all too well. Despite being the youngest pitcher in the Major Leagues -- he turned 21 on Jun 17 -- Fuentes shows little fear on the mound. Armed with a distinctive 98 mph three-fingered fastball (“In the Minors, I suffered a lot from blisters and adding that third finger has helped me avoid them completely,” Fuentes explained), a biting slider, and a tongue perpetually perched atop his lip like a student hard at work on a math problem, Fuentes has become a crucial part of the Atlanta bullpen, one that will be tasked with big innings and big moments come this postseason.
Fuentes has earned his first two MLB saves this year, watched his strikeouts tick up and -- most importantly for any young pitcher -- brought his walks and home runs down from his brief big league taste last year.
He credits the veterans on staff for the help in getting him up to speed with Major League hitters and making the transition from starter to shutdown reliever.
“I’ve had help from Martín Pérez, Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suárez, and Carlos Carrasco,” Fuentes said. “They have all given me advice and contributed their ‘grain of sand’ to help me in my process. I actually had Carrasco with me in Triple-A and during Spring Training.”
Fuentes' teammates were quick to remind him when he finally reached the legal drinking age in the U.S. in the middle of the season, but he skipped the beers and a long night hopping from bar to bar. For him, that age was just a number.
“Since I just turned 21, the guys in the clubhouse were joking around with me because I was finally ‘legal’ in the United States to drink alcohol,” Fuentes said, a shy grin spreading across his face. “But honestly, I'm not a big fan of that.”
That’s because Fuentes’ approach to his career is the same as his approach to batters: He’s here to attack.
“They say that the younger you arrive,” Fuentes said, “the better your career can be.”
Fuentes has dreamt of being a big leaguer for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Tolú, a small town of about 33,000 on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, Fuentes started playing baseball with his father when he was just 5 years old, appearing on Colombian junior national teams soon after.
“Since I was a very young child,” Fuentes said, “I always showed a love for baseball.”
But Fuentes couldn’t stay at home if he wanted to turn his passion into his career: Living in a small coastal town where the only other notable person (according to Wikipedia at least) was Héctor Rojas Herazo, a poet born in 1920, meant that scouts and big league ball clubs weren’t making many plans to visit.
“Around the age of 15, I realized that scouts didn’t really visit my town. I had to leave Tolú for Cartagena and other cities to be seen, so I could be signed and become a professional,” Fuentes said.
One year later, in 2022, the Braves signed Fuentes for $75,000 – an amount that put Fuentes outside of the top 200 international amateurs who signed that season. And yet, he’s just one of three players to reach the big leagues from that signing class, the others being Oscar Colás, a former White Sox outfielder six years Fuentes’ senior, and the Brewers’ Luis Lara, who made his MLB debut last month.
“It was an emotion that is hard to explain,” Fuentes said when recalling his big league debut last season. “It was something I had wanted since I was a kid.”
That night, his father was in attendance, the first time that he had seen Fuentes pitch since his son had left Tolú.
He may have been sitting behind home plate, directly in Fuentes’ line of sight, but the young pitcher didn’t need to see him to know his Dad was there.
“You know how Latin parents are – always cheering and making noise,” Fuentes said with a laugh. “Debuting in the big leagues was an incredibly high emotion, and my dad was there with that same whistle he used when I was a kid in baseball school.”
The postseason will soon be calling and Fuentes hopes to represent Colombia at the World Baseball Classic one day, but for now, he’s focused on being in the moment. Just as he goes right at the batters at the plate, he’s trying to do the same with his life.
When asked what advice he would give his younger self, he pauses for a moment.
“I would tell him that we are fulfilling all the dreams I had as a child,” Fuentes said. “Now, the goal is to stay here and keep enjoying it.”