The Braves optioned right-hander Bryce Elder to the minor leagues to call up southpaw Dylan Dodd earlier this weekend. The 2023 All-Star had a middling 4.50 ERA and 4.92 FIP in eight starts in the majors to this point in the season, so the club’s decision to send Elder to Triple-A is hardly a shock. That said, it’s still notable given that it opens up a spot in the rotation behind Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, and Grant Holmes.
At first glance, Dodd seems like the obvious candidate to take that role considering that the lefty has started seven of his eight MLB appearances so far in his career. Dodd has moved to the bullpen full time at Triple-A this year, however, and Mark Bowman of MLB.com reported today that right-hander Spencer Strider is actually the one who will take Elder’s spot in the rotation after he’s activated from the injured list on May 20.
The 26-year-old missed nearly all of last season after undergoing internal brace surgery on his UCL early last year. The righty made it back to the big league mound just over a month ago and struck out five across five innings of one-run ball, but suffered a hamstring injury shortly thereafter while playing catch in preparation for his second start of the season. Rather than take any chances with Strider pitching on a balky hamstring, Atlanta placed him back on the injured list, where he’s remained for the past month.
Now, it appears Strider is finally poised to take his second start of the 2025 season. It was reported last week that Strider was scheduled to throw a 70-to-75 pitch simulated game in preparation for his return to action, at which point the club would decide whether to send him on a short rehab assignment or activate him directly off of the injured list. It seems they’ve opted to go with the latter option in order to get Strider back to the majors as quickly as possible. A disastrous 0-7 start to the season has become little more than a bad memory, as the 24-23 Braves are just four games back of a playoff spot and five games back of the Mets in the NL East.
That’s hardly an insurmountable deficit, particularly for a club that’s hoping to get a healthy, vintage performance from Strider the rest of the way. The hard-throwing righty was among the best pitchers in baseball in his first two MLB seasons as he posted a 3.36 ERA with a 2.43 FIP and a 37.4% strikeout rate from 2022 to 2023. If he can offer anything close to that sort of a production for a rotation that already features the reigning NL Triple Crown winner in Sale and a pair of electric young arms in Schwellenbach and Smith-Shawver, Atlanta should be a force to be reckoned with moving forward this year before even considering the fact that Ronald Acuna Jr.’s own return may be just around the corner or that All-Stars Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II have yet to produce offensively this year.
He is the next guy to get busted for PED’s. Velocity down, big legs,huge temper
Dude is a vegan.
All the more reason to suspect PED. No one gets ripped from snorting tofu and double fistimg chickpeas.
He’s a total weirdo. I think he’s overrated. It takes him 100 pitches to get to the 5th, and the bullpen gets used up every 5th day.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=v8B1vuvsIR8
Elder had 4 QS in his last 5 games. With the other being a 5ip, 2er effort vs the dodgers.
Him and AJSS are the only pitchers and Schellenbach that was options. Everyone else is old. They’d send Grant Holmes down if he wasn’t going to get claimed.
Holmes to the pen
That appears to be the plan. They have an off day every week for the next 3 or 4.
Elder should go into the rotation for now
and move Holmes to the bullpen. Holmes seems
to take a dive after 2 times through the order.
Elder holds up a little better. There are 2-3
guys in the pen now that you can either send
down or just cut them loose! Dodd was just
sent down to create a roster spot for Strider,
but they will still need another spot for Kimbrel.
To be a punchline for this and other sites,
Scott Blewett has been pretty damn good with the exception of one outing! He had some big time appearances in a couple extra inning games in which he got well deserved wins! I wouldn’t miss Montero or De Los Santos myself. Somebody has got to go, unless there is somebody on the active roster with minor league options. Hate to just lose a pen piece outright, but AA will find another one in the DFA bargain bin! BTW, AA..I dare you to sign David Robertson! A 3.00 ERA in ’24 in 68 games, 72 innings with 99 strikeouts!