Wise Beyond His Years: JR Ritchie’s Ever Refining Routine Has Him Knocking on Atlanta’s Door

Even while growing up in Bainbridge Island, Washington, just west of Seattle, JR Ritchie dreamed of being a professional athlete.

A big fan of the Oklahoma Sooners, Seattle Seahawks, and fantasy football, Ritchie initially thought he’d be scoring touchdowns rather than striking out hitters on the biggest stages.

When he first stepped on a baseball diamond, the positive results didn’t show up right away.

“I played t-ball like everyone else; I didn’t really love it. I always loved football growing up, wanted to be a football player, and then I started playing competitive baseball when I was seven years old,” Ritchie said. “I got put on a 9U select travel team and I was the worst player on the team by far, hit last, maybe played an inning or two at second base, I was the smallest kid there, and it pissed me off that I didn’t play as much as I wanted to.”

It was through those initial struggles that Ritchie found joy in working to get better at his craft.

“That’s really when the love for the game kind of started, me and my dad going into our front yard and playing catch, hitting me ground balls, taking me to the cages and hitting pretty much every night just trying to get better,” Ritchie said. “Within a year or two of that I started to see some growth and got a lot better pretty quick.”

As Ritchie developed as a player, he took pride in working out during Washington winters where rain was more frequent and the weather was colder.

“Having baseball’s off-season in the winter, I always felt there was a grindy feel to it,” Ritchie said. “I felt good when I’d finish a workout when it was 35 degrees outside and raining. I loved it, I had an awesome support staff around me that always helped me and had my back.”

The hard work paid off quickly into his time at Bainbridge High School when college recruitment came around.

When Ritchie was just a freshman, he made the decision to commit to Oregon State University. However, the realization that he could have a long-term future in baseball didn’t come until his second year.

“When I was a sophomore, I got ranked pretty highly. I went to a couple events, and I was one of the hardest throwing kids there,” Ritchie said. “I went to play at a couple tournaments and had some success in that, and I started to realize that this is a real opportunity.”

Those experiences opened his eyes to the importance of building a strong routine.

“From that moment on, I’ve tried to professionalize my routine in what I did,” Ritchie said. “Especially my pregame routine, throwing program, lifting program, all that stuff, just really tried to lock it in. Really have that be my thing, having a routine beyond my years.”

Ritchie made the decision to re-open his recruitment after Oregon State went through changes within its coaching staff.

He made the choice to commit to UCLA after a good conversation with head coach John Savage. While the Bruins have a strong history of producing quality pitching prospects, he ultimately passed on the opportunity.

The Atlanta Braves selected Ritchie with the 35th overall pick in the 2022 Draft, landing exactly where he wanted to be.

“I say this truthfully, the Braves were my number one team going into the draft. Same thing [as UCLA] they pump out pitchers and have a lot of success turning minor league pitchers into good big-league pitchers,” Ritchie said. “It’s somewhere that I wanted to be and I thought that they’d be able to get the best out of my abilities.”

Ritchie was convinced after meetings with Atlanta prior to the draft.

“Just talking to them during the pre-draft process, I loved everything that they were about,” Ritchie said. “All the questions I asked, they were really honest, there’s just a lot of great people in the organization so I couldn’t be happier falling into the Braves’ hands and have an opportunity to play here.”

Ritchie signed with Atlanta and made five starts between the FCL Braves and Class-A Augusta to finish the 2022 campaign.

Opening his first full season with Augusta in 2023, he made four starts before experiencing pain in his elbow. After getting an MRI, Ritchie discovered he needed to undergo Tommy John surgery.

“That was brutal, I’ve never been injured in my life. I didn’t see it coming at all and all of a sudden, my elbow’s bugging me and it doesn’t feel too good,” Ritchie said. “I just go it’s not a big deal we’ll get an MRI, next thing you know, two days later, it’s like hey you got to get surgery.”

Despite having to miss the rest of the 2023 slate, Ritchie was still able to grow during the time off.

“At the end of the day, there’s silver linings in there. I think I got a lot better as a person and a player,” he said. “I learned to live on my own a bit more and matured in that way. I also had a lot of time to be able to look back at my routine and what I did between starts and figure out what I can improve upon.”

He credits a strong rehab group to allowing him to return to the mound as fast as possible.

“Recovery process was very monotonous; you can’t play any games. It’s a lot of doing the same stuff over and over again but it’s hammering out the basics and just returning to playing,” he said. “I was lucky enough to have a great rehab group, I think it’s probably the best of all time. Everyone had each other’s backs and looked out for each other, we spent a lot of time outside of the facility together.”

Just over 13 months after his last start in 2023, Ritchie returned to the mound for the FCL Braves on June 17, 2024. He returned to Augusta not long after and was named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week after tossing five hitless innings with seven strikeouts in his return start on July 12.

The 2024 season ended with Ritchie making a pair of starts with High-A Rome for the first time. He remained in Rome to start the 2025 campaign, getting the nod as the Opening Day starter.

Entering the year, Ritchie’s arsenal sat at three pitches: fastball, slider and changeup. That pitch mix has quickly changed as the new year has gone on.

“Couple weeks into the year I added a two-seam, the week after I added a curveball and a week after that I added a sweeper,” Ritchie said in an interview with Stripers broadcaster Dave Lezotte. “It’s been a work in progress and later on I swapped the slider out for a cutter. Some pitches were a lot easier to get to, curveball right away I had feel for it, sweeper took a couple weeks to get a feel for, and the cutter’s still a work in progress. It’s about trying to stay on it and a lot of it’s a learning process of when to throw.”

With an improved arsenal to work with, Ritchie introduced himself as one of the top arms in the South Atlantic League.

Through May 13, he led the league in ERA (1.30), wins (4), innings pitched (41.2), BAA (.161) and WHIP (0.79). He was named South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week two days prior after tossing a one-hit shutout in his first career complete game.

“I really felt like I had a good off-season and a good spring going into the year. I worked on a lot of stuff and was feeling good so to have success early like that was good,” Ritchie said. “It gave me a lot to improve upon but at the same time to see some quick results like that was nice and it’s always a good feeling.”

Ritchie was promoted to Double-A Columbus on May 13, recording a 3.49 ERA in eight starts.

While the results didn’t come as easily as the level prior, he was getting a better handle on making in-game adjustments.

“The hitters got a little better, didn’t really expand off the plate as much. I had to learn how to pitch a little more, read some guys’ swings and not get caught up in scouting reports pre-game but adjusting in-game,” Ritchie said. “Trying to figure out what guys want to hit and reading how they’re swinging the bat. What are they seeing what they are not and going from there.”

It was during his time with Columbus where he received an invite to participate in the MLB All-Star Futures Game at Truist Park in Atlanta.

Ritchie started for the National League, tossing a hitless inning while striking out two batters.

“It was really cool, being able to walk out to that mound, start that game and basically get it out of the way and be able to enjoy the rest of the game was a great time,” Ritchie said. “I’m really glad I was able to throw up a zero and get out of there without any damage. Being able to play some of the top hitters in professional baseball was pretty cool.”

Three days after the Futures Game, Ritchie was promoted to Gwinnett and strong results kept coming. His Triple-A debut ended with a win in a quality start as he allowed three earned runs across six innings and struck out six batters.

Now ranked the Braves’ No. 2 prospect by MLB.com, the 22-year-old is combining what he’s learned at past levels to find success at Triple-A.

“These are real professional hitters, guys don’t make mistakes. Being able to blend together the scouting report and making in-game adjustments has been big for me,” he said. “Learning how to pitch off certain pitches and how to attack guys, it’s been a big adjustment for me, but I feel like it’s something I can handle.”

Stripers pitching coach Wes McGuire worked with Ritchie in 2023 while he was the pitching coach with Augusta. McGuire speaks highly of the way the right-hander carries himself each day.

“He’s always been a guy that’s been mature beyond his years,” McGuire said. “Really polished and able to break it down piece by piece and work on what he needs to.”

Knowing how impressive Ritchie’s arsenal is, McGuire feels his next step is finding a way to harness it through each start.

“Just continuing to evolve a little bit and learn the nuances,” McGuire said. “Pure stuff-wise he’s pretty advanced so it’s being able to have his best stuff night after night and repeat it.”

Aside from 20-year-old Didier Fuentes, Ritchie is the youngest player on the Stripers roster. He’s learning to take advantage of being around an experienced Gwinnett pitching staff.

“Being here, there’s a lot of people you can learn from that have a lot of valuable advice and big-league time,” Ritchie said. “It’s ultimately where I want to end up so being able to pick those guys’ brains and be around a lot of great players is awesome.”

With Ritchie’s innings already being over triple digits this season, he’s more than doubled the workload he’s produced in any professional campaign thus far. In finishing this year with the Stripers, he is aiming to home in on a recovery process that can keep him feeling good before each start.

“Just trying to dial in the process and learn how to recover each week,” Ritchie said. “It’s been a long season; I haven’t made this many starts in my career yet so just trying to get a full season under my belt. Try and feel good between weeks and just keep at it.”