Braves Faced With Surprising Lack of Pitching Options Due to Injury, Ineffectiveness

The Atlanta Braves, despite their best offseason efforts, could use some more pitching right about now

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Bryce Elder was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett after allowing sixteen runs in just 11.2 innings in May. / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves are probably in a spot they didn’t expect to be in - hurting for pitching. 

After last season’s struggles with finding healthy arms to start games in Atlanta, with the team using sixteen different starters to finish the 162-game season (thirteen traditional starters and three relievers), it was obvious the front office wanted to have multiple options for 2024.

This offseason, Atlanta failed to lure free agent Aaron Nola out of Philadelphia so they went out and signed Reynaldo López in free agency and then doubled down by trading for Boston Red Sox veteran Chris Sale, a move that turned out to be prescient. 

Even after trading some of their depth options in Triple-A that didn’t project to make the major league roster like Jared Shuster and Michael Soroka, now both pitching out of the Chicago White Sox bullpen, the Braves still looked to have a plethora of starting options. The major league rotation was so deep that an All-Star from last season, sinkerballer Bryce Elder, started the season in Triple-A Gwinnett and one of the team’s top prospects, first-rounder Hurston Waldrep, finished last season in Triple-A for his final start but was assigned to Double-A Mississippi due to there being too many options in Gwinnett to fit him into the rotation. 

Amazing how a few months can change things, huh? 

Spencer Strider is out for the season after elbow surgery to correct a UCL issue. Bryce Elder was optioned to the minors after a disastrous May where he allowed sixteen runs (fifteen earned) across just 11.2 innings in three starts, all Braves losses. And top pitching prospect AJ Smith-Shawver, fresh off of a masterful 2024 debut against the Chicago Cubs, was placed on the injured list with what turned out to be a Grade 2 oblique strain, one that could sideline him for multiple months.  

Atlanta called up reliever Ray Kerr for his first career major league start last night - a start he didn’t know about until he arrived at the ballpark on Friday. As you can imagine, it didn’t go that well. 

So what happens now? 

The existing options to seize the fifth starter’s spot in the rotation vacated by Strider’s injury haven’t worked out so far. The AJC’s Justin Toscano compiled the ERA of each of the five guys that have started in that spot (Allan Winans, Bryce Elder, AJ Smith-Shawver, Darius Vines and Ray Kerr): 6.39

The Braves are running out of options. 

In Triple-A Gwinnett right now, the only starter that is on the 40-man roster that is both healthy and has yet to come up and start this season is lefty Dylan Dodd. The major league sample size he’s compiled so far doesn’t inspire confidence - He made seven starts last season, going 2-2 with a 7.60 ERA in his 34.1 innings.

(It’s worth noting that Dodd’s 2024 AAA ERA is almost a run and a half lower than it was last season, when he was battling injury, although it’s still 4.50 after eight starts and 50 innings.)

Other starters on the 40-man roster in Gwinnett include Huascar Ynoa and Ian Anderson, both rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and currently on the injured list. Anderson is expected back at some point in the second half of the season, while Ynoa pitched three games in Gwinnett before going on the injured list and his return is unknown at this time.

Snitker indicated after last night’s game that there was enough options between Vines, Winans, Dodd, Elder, and Kerr to mix and match for a while until someone separated themselves from the pack: “Yeah. We’ll keep doing it,” Snitker told Toscano and other media. “There’s options. It’s just one of those things you gotta fight through. This thing’s never perfect, it’s never easy. But we’ll just keep battling our way through it and then figure it out, and make it work.”

“We’ll just see where it takes us,” Snitker said. “We’re just gonna be on a day-to-day basis with all that and see where guys are. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.”

It’s not just starters 

Atlanta’s also running out of potential major league relievers in Gwinnett, as well. With today’s callup of Jimmy Herget, the only 40-man roster reliever in Gwinnett remaining is Daysbel Hernández, who was optioned there on May 23rd and can’t come back up for fifteen days unless it’s as an injury replacement. Atlanta does have options they can add to the 40-man roster in veteran Ken Giles and recently re-signed Jackson Stephens, and the Braves can create one 40-man roster spot by moving Spencer Strider from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list. 

There’s a little more flexibility here, as the Braves can always move a starter to relief like they did with Vines this week. Additionally, there are relief prospects in the minors, like Hayden Harris (currently pitching in Double-A Mississippi). 

But there’s no easy choices to be made here.