Top prospect Hurston Waldrep will make his major league debut with the Braves on Sunday

“My mom’s instinct kicked in,” Hurston said Saturday in the visitors’ clubhouse at Nationals Park. “She was like, ‘Oh my God, we have to get flights, we have to find hotels. How are we going to get there? When are we going to get up there? When do you launch? What time is the match? It was like, “Mom, let it go.” It was late, it was after the game, it was like 11 o’clock, it was like, “We’ll take care of this in the morning.” She told me, “No, no, no. » I couldn’t even go back to my hotel room, and she had already sent me a list of who was coming, who would be there.

“It was great. It was the best. I loved it.”

Waldrep, the Braves’ first-round draft pick last year, will start for the Braves in Sunday’s series finale against the Nationals. A Thomasville native, Waldrep grew up a Braves fan. “Just being able to put on this uniform will mean a lot,” the right-hander said. He started playing baseball at age 6 and has been thinking about the moment he’s about to experience ever since.

On MLB Pipeline, Waldrep is listed as the Braves’ No. 2 prospect and the No. 72 prospect in all of baseball. In July, the Braves selected him 24th overall out of the University of Florida. Eleven months ago, Waldrep participated in a Zoom call with the media and answered questions to make it happen.

Could Waldrep have expected to make his debut so quickly?

“I mean, no, with the way baseball works,” he said. “But I think you can’t really let that affect the way you play either. Personally, I set very high goals for myself, and I perform very well, and everything I do on a daily basis, I implement to achieve these goals. I can’t say I had that in mind, but I also can’t say it was out of character.

Waldrep, who turned 22 in March, is a college product, meaning his path to the major leagues certainly would have been quicker than if the Braves had taken a high school pitcher with that pick. But calling him is a testament to their trust in him.

“His stuff plays here,” manager Brian Snitker said. “Skills play a role. Stuff is playing.

Max Fried, originally scheduled to pitch Sunday, will start the series opener Tuesday in Baltimore. This will allow the Braves to give Fried and the rest of their starters extra rest, which is important considering Reynaldo López and Chris Sale are about to throw a ton more innings than they have. in recent seasons.

On Saturday, Waldrep was on the taxi squad, as the Braves had not yet officially made a decision to put him on the 26-man roster. Spencer Schwellenbach was still on the active roster.

In the minors this season, Waldrep pitched to a 3.09 ERA in 55-1/3 innings, with 59 strikeouts. He started in Double-A and made one start in Triple-A before the Braves promoted him. And in that lone outing for Gwinnett, he allowed three runs in six innings and struck out 11 batters for the Stripers.

In Waldrep’s first start of the season, he allowed seven earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. Since then? A 2.05 ERA over 52-2/3 innings.

“I just get into my rhythm, I feel comfortable,” Waldrep said. “Obviously, my first year in pro ball, being able to learn the ins and outs. There have been a lot of things that have been done before to get to this point. Not getting too anxious and just settling back and enjoying baseball and playing baseball, doing what I know how to do.

Waldrep’s splitter is the pitch that led to him being drafted high and the one that charted his path to the majors. It was one of the best fields in college baseball last year. During the summer of 2022, Waldrep developed the separator he currently uses.

“I couldn’t get a left-handed hitter out with everything I had, and it was pretty annoying to face eight or nine lefties in a lineup in one day,” Waldrep said. “And so, I thought, ‘Well, I must have something,’ so I invented the splitter, and it’s been good news from there.”

His motto for pitching is the same one he’s always used when pitching:

“Throw it as hard as you can and see what happens.”

When Waldrep arrived in Washington to join the Braves, he already knew almost everyone. He spent time in major league camp this spring. He had already met Snitker and his coaches. He knew the faces in the clubhouse.

So when he arrived at Nationals Park on Saturday, he walked into Snitker’s office and greeted the manager and his coaching staff. Then he goes to the clubhouse to familiarize himself with his new surroundings.

“I enjoyed being with him (in spring training),” Snitker said. “He’s a bit like Spencer (Schwellenbach). He seems to be a mature child. He pitched high-level baseball in college. They are starting to arrive earlier. But they are mature children and young men. He definitely has some stuff, that’s for sure. It’s just a matter of experience, and they get very good on-the-job training here.

As for that list of people attending his MLB debut?

It includes his mom and dad, siblings, aunt and uncle, high school coaches, travel coaches and friends.

Waldrep is excited to pitch in front of them and represent Thomasville.

“It means a lot,” he said, proud to represent his hometown. “There aren’t a lot of people who know much about Thomasville, Georgia, so it was pretty cool to be able to say that’s where I’m from. Above all, just having the support that I have, it means a lot. It’s very, very helpful in the stress of this game to have someone to turn to, a family to turn to, support to come back to.

Braves recall Daysbel Hernández

The Braves recalled right-hander Daysbel Hernández on Saturday to replace right-hander Jimmy Herget, whom they placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 6, because of right shoulder inflammation.

Hernández pitched a scoreless inning in Saturday’s loss to the Nationals.

Herget allowed three earned runs in 7 1/3 innings with the big club this year.