Braves No. 3 Prospect Set to Join Rotation After Anderson Trade

An injury kept him out of the starting rotation last season, but the Atlanta Braves prospect will get his shot to start the 2025 campaign

Harrison Smajovits | Mar 23, 2025

The Braves prospect is getting a long-awaited spot in the rotation / Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

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Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves rotation is closer to finalization. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Justin Toscano, AJ Smith-Shawver will join the starting rotation to open the season.

AJ Smith-Shawver has made the rotation.
— Justin Toscano (@JustinCToscano) March 23, 2025

With the departure of Ian Anderson via a trade to the Los Angeles Angels and Bryce Elder being optioned to Triple-A, the original plans have gone out the window, and the Braves No. 3 prospect emerged to get the spot.

The irony of this was that there were points where Smith-Shawver looked like he could be the one to get traded. Not the case.

Smith-Shawver finishes his Spring Training campaign with a 3.94 ERA across 14 innings of work.

This addition to the rotation is a long time coming. He initially had a chance to join the rotation last season during the Braves' attempt to avoid crashing out due to injuries. He quickly caught the bug as well.

In that lone start, Smith-Shawver pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks and striking out four. He started to feel discomfort in the third inning but pushed his way into the fifth. He would miss a little over a month with an oblique injury.

Once Smith-Shawver went down, the Braves saw the emergence of Spencer Schwellenbach and he was sent down to the minor for the rest of the season.

He had a 4.86 ERA in 20 Triple-A starts last season. However, he showed some improvement toward the end with a 3.75 ERA in September.

At this point, the starting rotation to start the rotation is likely to look as follows:

Chris Sale
Reynaldo López
Spencer Schwellenbach
AJ Smith-Shawver
Grant Holmes

By the end of April, Spencer Strider is expected to be back and ready to jump. At that point, Holmes is likely to be the one slides to the bullpen. However, this is assuming that Smith-Shawver is rolling to start the season. If Holmes is dealing and Smith-Shawver needs more time, he might be the one who heads to the bullpen for a bit.

To clarify, this is all speculation based on information we currently know. When Anderson was still around, either he or Holmes was the one intended to head to the bullpen when Stirder returned. So Anderson was switched out for Smith-Shawver for this speculation.

During a 162-game season, or even over the course of a month, a lot can play out.