ST. LOUIS — Baseball has a way of creating full-circle moments, and Joey Wentz had his Saturday.
The 27-year-old made his first appearance for the Braves in a 7-6 win against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. It came a little more than nine years after being drafted by the organization and a little less than six after being traded by the Braves to the Tigers.
“It was cool,” Wentz said of the day that was Saturday. “Really thankful for the opportunity to be back wearing the Braves jersey and it definitely felt really cool.”
Wentz threw three innings of scoreless relief Saturday. He allowed only a two-out walk in the fifth after retiring the first eight hitters he saw and struck out seven.
Wentz’s six strikeouts were his most in a game since 2023. He threw 32 of his 50 pitches for strikes, 46 fastballs (mixing between cutters and four-seamers) and induced 10 whiffs.
His performance was sorely needed for a Braves club reeling from starting pitching injuries and that had relied on the bullpen for six innings of work in Friday’s win. Wentz said he put a lot of trust in Braves catcher Sean Murphy to call the game.
“Wow. Yeah, how ‘bout him? That was pretty good wasn’t it?” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I didn’t know what to expect, he just got here and, wow, that was about as good as you can get. Took out a huge chunk of that game. He got us to the guys that we wanted to pitch at the back end of the game. It was a great job.”
Wentz had been designated for assignment by the Twins on Thursday. To start the season, Wentz made 19 appearances for the Pirates. He only pitched in six games with the Twins and had a 15.75 ERA.
But the Braves, desperate to not leave any pitching stone unturned, phoned an old friend. He drove to St. Louis on Friday from his home in Kansas City, Missouri, with his wife, to at long last join the team he once thought he might debut with so many years ago.
“Coming into today, hadn’t thrown the ball as well as I would have liked to, but really happy with what was I was able to do today and just kinda get in there and help put the team in an advantageous spot. Just a cool day to be a part of,” Wentz said. “Kind of tinkered some grips with a couple of ‘em. Kinda tinkered the cutter grip and that was pretty good for me today, kinda tinkered the fastball grip as well. I feel like as long as I can command the baseball pretty good, I hopefully throw the ball well.”
The Braves selected Wentz 40th overall in the 2016 MLB Draft and gave him $3.05 million not long after he had graduated high school. Wentz would have played at Virginia collegiately if for not choosing to start his professional career when he did.
“I feel fortunate to get an organization like the Braves and be put in a good situation, a position to succeed. I’m blessed, really,” Wentz said at the time.
Wentz spent the next 3+ seasons in the Braves system and reached Double-A Mississippi in 2019 before the Braves sent him and Travis Demeritte to the Tigers in exchange for Shane Greene. Wentz finally made his MLB debut on May 11, 2022, in a game against the Athletics.
One hundred and three games and 239 2/3 innings later, he was able put on a Braves uniform.
“It was awesome,” Murphy said of Wentz’s performance. “Braves debut, couldn’t have asked for more from him. It was great.”
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