The 2026 season brings some new things for the Braves.
Walt Weiss is the new manager and the AJC has a new beat writer, Chad Bishop.
As spring training approaches, keep up with all the Braves news, big and small, in updates from Bishop and some of our other sports writers.
Sunday was the first day of spring training that the Braves' entire roster was to report to camp. While much of the team was already in town, players like outfielder Jurickson Profar and infielder Jorge Mateo checked into the clubhouse for the first time.
Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar said this morning he had sports hernia surgery in November. His recovery process was about six weeks and he's fully cleared to play this spring training.
Profar was one of the last position players to arrive to Florida for spring training.
Good morning from a beautiful Saturday at CoolToday Park.
The Braves are in their fifth day of spring training and final day before the enitre roster reports to camp (only a few position players at this point have not checked in).
Stadium is open today for fans to come and watch workouts, as well as get autographs and fight over batting practice home run balls in the outfield.
Sunday's schedule includes the first full-squad workout of the spring for the Braves.
There's a young player, perhaps multiple, every spring who makes a good impression. A clear candidate here over the next month is the hard-throwing JR Ritchie, one of the team's top pitching prospects who's on the cusp of becoming a major leaguer. He could turn a strong spring and promising start to the minor-league season into his MLB debut soon enough.
Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said the team is hopeful shortstop Ha-Seong Kim (finger) will be back in early May. It's an encouraging update that Kim is on schedule in his recovery. Mauricio Dubon will play shortstop in his absence.
We met and spoke with a lot of Braves on Friday morning: Chris Sale, Matt Olson, Robert Suarez, Jonah Heim and Kyle Farmer. Oh, and Alex Anthopoulos, too (there will be a Q&A from him popping up on AJC.com later).
Until then, we're taking in another day of live batting practice at a very overcast and foggy CoolToday Park. Former Georgia Southern pitcher Hayden Harris getting some work in as I write this.
Braves manager Walt Weiss spoke highly of the new additions to his staff. The Braves only brought back hitting coach Tim Hyers and longtime coach Eddie Perez from Brian Snitker's group a year ago.
"I don't know if it's more energetic, but it's definitely new," Weiss said. "We've always had great staffs here. Very different than the makeup of the staff now, but very good staffs. It's just different. I don't think the new energy and the new voices is a bad thing. Again, Alex (Anthopoulos) and I worked pretty hard on putting this staff together. We didn't do it over night, we grinded on it. We feel like we have some really good people in this building and on this staff. I love everyone (I've worked with). I thought our staffs were unbelievable, but I'm really excited about this staff."
Braves ace Chris Sale struck out Ronald Acuña Jr. twice during a live batting practice Thursday. Sale looked crisp during the session.
The Braves, for this first time this spring training, took live batting practice (pitchers throwing to hitters) Thursday at CoolToday Park.
Chris Sale pitched to Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies and Chadwick Tromp, respectively, Hurston Waldrep pitched to Tromp, Acuña and Albies, respectively, and J.R. Ritchie pitched to Drake Baldwin, Acuña and Albies, respectively.
Braves manager Walt Weiss said the team typically waits to do live batting practice until the full squad has reported to camp, but said the pitchers were ready to go Thursday so they made the decision to have the live BP early.
Outfielder Ben Gamel was present in the Braves clubhouse Thursday morning.
Gamel has spent nine seasons in MLB (most recently with the Mets and Astros in 2024) but did not appear in a game in 2025. Gamel is a career .252 hitter over more than 700 career games.
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