The Braves announced today that right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow fracture. Left-hander Austin Cox has been recalled to take his roster spot. The club also reinstated righty Daysbel Hernández from the IL and optioned right-hander Kevin Herget. They also officially announced that outfielder Jurickson Profar has been reinstated from the restricted list with outfielder Alex Verdugo designated for assignment, a swap that was previously reported.
Mark Bowman of MLB.com relays that Schwellenbach felt sore after his last game against the Phillies and a small fracture was discovered. He’ll be shut down for four weeks and could be back with the big league club in September.
It’s obviously bad news all around. For Schwellenbach personally, he was on the way to having an excellent first full season in the big leagues. He debuted with 21 starts last year and posted a 3.35 earned run average in 123 2/3 innings. That secured him a rotation spot for 2025 and he has been even better this year, with a 3.09 ERA in 17 starts. Put together, he has a 3.23 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate, 4.4% walk rate and 44.1% ground ball rate in 234 1/3 innings.
All that is now on pause, as he’ll be on the shelf for a while. The four-week shutdown period will take him into August. If he’s healthy at that point, he could ramp back up and make a few more starts in September, though a setback could prevent him from returning again this year.
For the team, it’s yet another kick when they’re already down. Atlanta has struggled to get into a good groove this year and has produced disappointing results so far. They have a record of 38-46, which puts them seven games back of a playoff spot and with six teams to leapfrog. That’s partially due to underperformance from some guys on the roster but they also lost Profar to a PED suspension and have seen their rotation get weakened by injuries.
The first domino to fall was Reynaldo López, as he made just one start before requiring arthroscopic shoulder surgery. He’s been on the IL since then and still isn’t near a return. About a month ago, AJ Smith-Shawver required Tommy John surgery, putting him out of commission until well into next year. A couple of weeks back, Chris Sale suffered a rib cage fracture. His timeline is unclear but he has been transferred to the 60-day IL, meaning he can’t return until mid-August at the earliest. Now Schwellenbach is the latest blow.
Prior to the Sale injury, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos tried to strike an optimistic tone and said the club would not be selling, though he did leave the door open a crack by saying they could reevaluate late in July. That reevaluation seems more likely with today’s news. The club still needs to climb in the standings to give the club justification to buy, but that will be hard to do with no López, Sale, Smith-Shawver or Schwellenbach.
For now, the club will proceed with a rotation consisting of Spencer Strider, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and Didier Fuentes. To take Schwellenbach’s spot, they could recall someone like Hurston Waldrep, Nathan Wiles or Davis Daniel. Non-roster guys like José Suarez, Ian Anderson and Zach Thompson are all on the minor league injured list.
Going forward, the club presumably has less confidence in its ability to contend with the recent injuries to Sale and Schwellenbach, so the prospect of doing some deadline selling with an eye towards returning to contention in 2026 has surely increased. The deadline is on July 31st this year, so there are still about four weeks to see some more results roll in and have conversations with other clubs.
Photos courtesy of Brett Davis and Orlando Ramirez, Imagn Images
WHAAAAAAAAT?
Braves homer fans (you know who you are) will say the Sale and Schwellenbach injuries are the reasons the team failed this year while ignoring the fact they were under .500 and floundering long before these losses.
But hey we don’t need to rebuild. We have next year to run it back with an even more depleted group with Ozuna’s exit!!!
Troll!
the top 100 commenters don’t need to call themselves top 100 commenter. Just sayin’
Literally no one cares what you think.
Cared enough to respond though so I’m clearly getting action in your head
That makes one place you’re getting action.
Well one assumes they will actually make additions next year since they dipped under the cap in 25′. So at least in terms of losing Ozuna (who was one of the worst hitters in MLB in June) being depleting I would say that’s assuming they didn’t add anyone else. I mean it’s also money off the books. And for all we know they could sign him anyway. They may decline Albies 7M too.
Hey Rebuild, I’m a Braves homer, and I have known since the opening 7 game losing streak that this year’s team was toast. I will say that losing 2 of our 3 best starting pitchers is a major blow, and will not help this team.
This team was not built for this season long before the 0-7 start. They’ve been a .500 team since June of 2024 and everyone glosses over that….Injuries be d*mned, this is completely on AA and/or McGuirk (Liberty Media whatever)
“Braves homer fans..depleted group”..it’s easy to kick a team that’s down and having an off year. The Braves still have more young players in their prime than most teams.
Your commentary doesn’t really shed any new light on the Braves’ issues and appears designed to be just more negative propaganda commentary by people determined to go negative.
I’ve shed light over and over but since you want the ever growing list of needs to address this offseason here it goes
1. Corner still (since 2022)
2. SS (since 2023)
3. Catcher (because Murphy is no good)
4. 2-3 bullpen arms (since 2023 and 2024)
5. Starting pitcher (#2 caliber will suffice – since 2024)
6. Closer (since 2025)
7. DH (since 2025)
The last two are the needs after this year.
Bonus points would be to solve the Albies problem but that’s admittedly a difficult ask. If these others were answered then we could probably make due with Albies.
Based on 2025 free agents they need to do the following:
1. Baldwin full time at catcher – the easiest of the solutions but will they actually do it. Just get rid of Murphy, shouldn’t be hard.
2. Sign Bo Bichette – not at all my first choice but they passed on everyone the year like 5 SS were in the market. So this is our best case now
3. Sign Cody Bellinger or if his option is exercised trade for someone of his caliber – no one is asking for Kyle Tucker here. Just get someone competent please not some one hit wonder like Profar (who you will all get to now see he’s BJ Upton 2.0 like I said earlier this year)
4. Sign Schwarber or Josh Naylor for DH. I’d prefer Naylor.
5. Sign Zac Gallen – I’m willing to go out in a limb here. His value is down so this is where the Braves can be “cheap”. Not so cheap you you dumpster dive but a swing in a guy that’s shown ace like success just two years ago
6. Sign either Luke Weaver or Devin Williams for closer.
7. Sign Hoby Milner and Michael Kopech for relief
And there ya go! If it seems like a lot it’s because they’ve neglected doing anything for 3 seasons just letting people walk and opening up more and more holes. If you spread this out over 3 seasons (4 counting this offseason) then it wouldn’t look so lengthy. This is what complete inactivity and neglect looks like though.
So when I say we need to rebuild it’s because we’ve reached the tipping point where asking them to go out and get all of this is now too much. If they had simply filled the 1-2 voids as we went along every year we might not be rebuilding. Now I look at these needs and it’s clear the rebuild is here
Unless they want to shock me and actually go get all this. Then I’m right there with you guys, no rebuild necessary.
Want-to-be GMs will ignore the impact that injuries to Strider and Acuna Jr. to start the season was a big part of why the team started slow, then use that record to shout for delusional calls to rebuild when more injuries happen. They’ll ignore the fact that most rebuilds fail because they glamorize farm system rankings.
Remember when the Orioles had the consensus top farm system in baseball? They’re 37-48.
How long have the White Sox been rebuilding?
The Braves roster obviously has holes, but you don’t rebuild a team with all-star caliber players signed long-term at six different positions.
Well early on that Profar situation was probably a demoralizing factor. Lopez going down was tough too. Ultimately the Eli White base running game may have been the turning point. They were sparking a key comeback and it was very deflating when he got thrown out. That night the boos ran down after the last out. Louder than I’ve ever heard in ATL (when directed at the home team). Honestly I don’t even ever recall them booing the whole team but I’m sure it’s happened. But after that game the spiraling began.
I got some bad news bro, Braves sat around .500 with both Acuna and Strider (and Sale before you go there) all active and healthy.
It’s not the Marlins. No one said we were. I’ve been saying it’s a .500 team all year that progressively gets a little worse every offseason because they do nothing. So here’s the math… it’s a .500 club when healthy this year (this is a fact you can check the record when everyone was playing if you want) PLUS the loss of Ozuna which they’ll likely avoid signing someone and play both Murphy and Baldwin pretending that’s a solution which means it’s now chipped away yet again from being a true contender.
You know what I’ll do it for you since I know you won’t bother posting facts
Braves are 14-21 since Acuna and Strider both returned.
But wait! I know the next excuse will be Sale went down in there. So with all of them healthy they were 9-14 before Sale exited. They’ve actually been 5-7 since he left which is actually closer to .500 than the stretch with all 3 of them active.
But yeah the slow start when both were injured was the problem. Keep lying to yourselves… the results speak for themselves so I don’t have to though
Were they ever really healthy? Lopez went down and Jiminez was lost for the season. They started without their best player and one of the most talented pitchers on the planet. Ozuna is clearly hurt. I’m not saying that’s the only reason why they played badly most of the year but it’s also unreasonable to act like they were ever in a decent position in regards to health.
Well if you don’t have to just do us all a favor and keep it to yourself. We all have eyes. We know they aren’t playing well. We don’t need a drama queen venting their frustration on us.
Oh my god… Lopez and Jimenez? Seriously?
Is anyone 100% healthy? Are the Dodgers collapsing down to .500 (or well below it… I’m generous because I do think the team is a .500 team playing slightly worse than should be) without Snell, Sasaki, Kopech, etc?
Are the Yankees crippling with losses to Devin Williams, Luke Weaver, and Fernando Cruz? I’m sure there’s others I don’t have their team injury history memorized
Are the Phillies? Didn’t Harper go down for a stretch or was that different season? At the very least they lost Nola
God forbid the Braves lost Reynaldo f’ing Lopez and Jimenez. You guys blame everything on injuries. Really good teams overcome injuries… thus the transitive property suggest the Braves are not a really good team.
Edit:
Yep Harper missed an entire month. How did the Phillies launch themselves into first place while he was out? Braves fans everywhere left scratching their heads.
You guys want to play victim instead of addressing the problem(s)
That is the sad truth
Jiminez (possibly your best reliever). Lopez (who got Cy Young votes in a shortened season last year) COUPLED with Ronald missing almost the whole season AND Strider missing much of it and clearly having trouble even after he returned. AND Murphy was hurt(who has actually been good overall and is one of the best defensive catchers tho you don’t realize any of this). And Profar got suspended 80 games. AND Ozuna is clearly hurt. But yeah, just ignore all that. I get what you mean in that they truly are just playing bad too but the injuries are still one factor (on the physical and mental side of things).
Nobody is playing victim. You are being needlessly animated about it. We are merely acknowledging that injuries, while not the sole factor obviously, still do play a role (because you said they didn’t basically). Nobody is denying they still could have played far better and have been lifeless offensively and didn’t do anything to address a weak pen. Can you not believe everything you do to be true while SIMULTANEOUSLY accepting that they actually have had a lot of injuries?
The Phillies launched themselves into first place because A. the Mets have completely nose dived and B. Their starting pitching has been ridiculous.
The Phillies have a mediocre offense with an even more mediocre bullpen, yet they are where they are because of their starting pitching.
how can that be though? Phillies missed Suarez for 6 weeks and have lost Aaron Nola for even longer?
If injuries are the cause of teams playing poorly why are the Phillies immune?
Could it be the Braves injuries aren’t really the problem? That can’t be. Not based on everyone’s argument here. But let’s ignore 14-21 record since Strider and Acuna were activated. They were actually better at 24-25 before their return.
The team is just a .500 team with or without the injuries. End of story.
Also did you just call the Phillies offense mediocre? Then what do you consider the Braves offense? Pot meet kettle.
“Everyone here”-again you are merely misinterpreting everyone’s statements because of your own tunnel vision as nobody is making excuses just acknowledging multiple things at play here. You are literally bringing all this to be. You keep not realizing what you are actually doing. In regards to the Phillies Aaron Nola hasn’t even been good this year (he’s really not even that great) and 6 weeks of no Suarez and the time without Harper are a fairly big deal but they haven’t really had multiple players out at the same time. But even so they have just simply played better. Nobody is putting everything on injuries. You are focused on this narrative. Maybe it’s because of last year where people were going out of their way to make every excuse for ATL but even then they still had a point because the team did have a TON of injuries. But those who watched know that Olson, Albies, Riley, Acuna, Harris, etc were all not hitting…just like much of the team this year. All I am saying is you are pinning these two aspects (injuries and underperformance) against each other as either/or when they both are factors. Nobody is saying the bad play was initially caused by the injuries but they didn’t help trying to turn things around. Sometimes you need some things to go right to get on track and they haven’t had any luck. Would they have gotten on track of everyone was healthy? Who knows? They would still be behind the Phillies and Mets. But they’d have a much better chance moving forward and would probably have won at least a few mor games here and there already.
The baseball gods are extremely pissed at the Braves. Has to be more to the story.
Season now officially over.. AA has no choice but to sell now.
Too incompetent to sell. Watch Ozuna stick around just to walk in December
This will be very interesting to see how AA handles the club moving forward. Definitely have a handful of players to get traded. AA should publicly broadcast the fire sale to get things rolling.
Not sure Ozuna has a lot of value anyway. One of the worst qualified hitters in June and is playing with a hip tear. Was getting evaluated by med staff last night in dugout. I quit watching so idk if he stayed in the game but he’s definitely playing hurt.
His hip is FUBAR. Couldn’t get a bag of balls for him rn sadly.
It was over before this news. At least now no one in the Braves FO can make a case for not selling.
We can’t win
Losing Sale for the foreseeable future really hurts, it’s been a lousy year for Braves fans…
The worst part is the all star game is in ATL (even a bigger deal perhaps since it was taken away in 21′) and it is probably the managers last year after 49 years in the organization and they played so bad that none of their fans even voted for any of the players except Acuna. Usually their fans vote a lot when they are exciting. So now a festivity highlighting the city is gonna be filled with talk and feelings of disappointment.
I mean all star game in ATL and Matt Olson isn’t even in the top 5 in votes at 1B? The Braves fans that voted likely voted for Freeman largely tho.
I voted for Freeman. I hope Olson gets traded. Freeman will always be a Brave. All other positions I voted for Braves.
Olson is the only player really that has routinely gotten some big hits this year (Ozuna’s had his moments tho). He does fail a lot in big spots too but overall he’s been very solid. It’s all just amplified in our minds when nobody is hitting except one or two guys. I can’t imagine trading him. Fans clearly have a bias against Olson (not necessarily you) because of the Freeman situation. How is that Olson’s fault tho is my question to them
What a great player Freeman is and even a better human being, will be for ever in depth with Atlanta, thank you very much.
He will get at least one year extension and retire as a LAD HOF.
No bias here. I have and always will try my best to vote for the most deserving players. If they are Braves, then so be it. If not, then so be it.
I know there are a good number of people who vote that way as well. It’s just too bad so many people just vote based on popularity. It might even help their home team to not vote for them to get them a few days rest.
All-Star voting should be about voting the best players in. It should not be a popularity contest.
Even as a Braves fan, Matt doesn’t deserve to be an All-Star over Freeman and Alonzo
Atlanta fans could plan some sort of political rally/parade and have the All-Star Game canceled again.
Isn’t the commish gonna be on the field for the MVP award ceremony? They finally have a chance to boo him in ATL instead of Houston. They are hardly gonna be represented now that Sale and Shwellenbach are out. Lee maybe blew his chances last night.
Damn, this dude was pitching so well too. As an O’s fan with a team that has so many young quality arms on the IL, hopefully a speedy full recovery is in store for him.
Hurston Waldrep time and I’m depressed!!!
He needs to be in the bullpen.
Yes but who else do we throw because Ian Anderson is on the IL or do we do a Dylan Dodd bullpen game every fifth day. It is a frustrating reality we live in as a brave fan.
Starting rotation will be filled with anyone who can throw strikes. You’re right there isnt much readily available in the system. Is charlie culberson still around? Im sure it will be some combination of Wiles, daniel, Waldrep, and Anderson(when he comes back from injury). AA is probably surfing the waiver wire for any available low cost arms.
True I just thought about David fletcher’s knuckleball oh the season is saved. This was a joke not trying to be snarky.
thats honestly not a bad idea. just need people to log innings.
It sounds silly, but they actually are having some decent seasons from arms at AAA: Davis Daniel, Nathan Wiles, Jackson Stephens all should see some IP.
They obviously don’t think Wiles is a good option but idk how you don’t give him the chance to pitch in ATL with this rotation they now have going with Schwelly hurt.
…he’s walking 10% of AAA batters
Kyle Gibson time …
Has anybody seen Touki Toussaint lately.?Could use him on a flier.
Absolute face plam from a luck perspective at this point.
Time to sell Ozuna & Murphy
Get a SS & closer of the future to reset next year
Free up money for a bat next year
Interesting approach. I know Murph has been hit or miss over the past few years, but do you think Baldwin is ready to take over? I’m not saying he isn’t, but it’s a bold move, to be sure.
I think he is ready. A veteran to pair with him as a backup would be ideal
Dude was having a good sophomore season too. Really hate it for him.
As if Atlanta could not be more embarrassed.
Embarrassed?
38-46. Their worst record since 2017. Very little chance of winning the division with the Mets and Phillies.
Why is that embarrassing?
Very true, this year has been painful. Is it embarrassing that baseball is so difficult? Makes the 14 straight east titles even more impressive.
Did this guy just literally throw so hard his arm fell off?
Carrying the load.
Sell. They’ll be right back next year.
There’s never a bright side to an injury, but the Braves don’t need to pretend anymore. Sell hard.
Or trade for Morton and keep pretending.
Aggressive sell, but for next year, not a full rebuild.
Unbelievable. Get Waldrop up here, starting or relieving, don’t care. Dump Ozuna for whatever somebody is willing to give for him, and have Baldwin/Murphy in the lineup each night. The rest of the year should be a out auditioning for 2026. If Albies can’t turn it around, bench him the last month of the year and let Nacho play (once he’s healthy) so we can see what we have.
Trade Albies. Get what you can.
Albies needs to build a little value though so they can get something for him.
Right now, the only value he brings is Acuna’s best friend.
Is Kelenic mashing in Triple-A ??? Did I just ask the most self-evident question ever?
As bad and unconfident as Kelenic is it turned out to be pointless to send him down because Verdugo was so bad. I know he didn’t hit in the minors but again he is clearly frustrated and unconfident so his performance there is probably a result of that (he is likely feeling like he may never make it in baseball). He’s always mashed in the minors in the past. He needs to take some time off and see a (good) therapist honestly. Not putting him down for it. It’s understandable. He plays hard-I’ll give him that (despite Ronald’s comment which really was directed at Snit and not him anyway).
It’s definitely an issue between the ears with Kelenic. Way too hard on himself when he doesn’t execute, and baseball is a game of failure anyway, not sure his perfectionist mindset can be fixed at this point. It’s too bad, because he has the raw skills to be a ballplayer.
Perfect analysis
What in the actual fvccccckkkkk?????!
I’m ready for a fire sale and reset for next year.
Lmfao this team is so freaking cursed.
If by cursed you mean mismanaged then 100% agree
Definitely mismanaged. Also cheap and injury prone.
Poverty!
So cursed. It’s been 4 entire years since their last World Series. And months since their last playoff appearance.
4 years and only 3 players remain from that WS team but continue on.
Can Manfred still pull the AS Game from ATL? I’m begging him to. Please Robbie. Make it stop.
What a gut punch!!!! Sale pitches a gem and a couple days later is put on IL with broken ribs. A little over 2 weeks later Schwellenbach pitches a gem and a couple days later put on IL with a broken elbow.
Schwellenbach was pitching good enough for a possible all-star spot too.
And with that, you can put a fork in the Atlanta Braves 2025 season. They are done.
Flags at half staff for All Star Festivities! Make Atlanta Great Again!
Or at least Make Atlanta Good Again!
RIP 2025 Braves. Let’s hope AA decides to make some moves this off-season that involve actual major leaguers. 🤞
Have to think this puts the Braves in sell mode with Sale, Lopez & Schwellenbach all down.
Shut that team down. Sell sell sell
See if the Mariners will move some of their pitching. They’re clearly not interested in using it to win anything. If not, second best option is throw in a few single-A scrubs for Skenes.
This is obnoxious at this point. Good news is, it is officially over. Rebuild and start over.
Trade Acuna to the Mets, Acuna and Acuna.
Brandon Sproat, Jonah Tong, Jack Wenninger, Wellington Arecena, Jett Williams and AJ Ewing.
Four nice pitchers and a pair of players who can hit.
Bummer for the team and for the kid. Hate to see young talent get snake-bitten by injuries.
That being that, Wilyer Abreu would look great in RF for ATL and Matt Olson would look great at 1B for Boston. Something, something, prospects… Let’s go Bres. Time to save your job.
Nah, we’ll stick with Olson
Atlanta has a pretty good rightfielder already.
Snakebit by injuries for a second straight season. Might need a new strength and conditioning team to try to better maximize the health of these players.
If the Braves were smart now they would start selling anyone who they don’t see as long term fixtures. Ozuna should get them some value in a year where hitting is scarce.
Braves are so fkd. Seriously.
Ozuna their biggest trade chip, has a hip tear (correct me if im wrong braves fans)
Sale- who knows how he comes back next year, the other one who had shoulder surgery as well.
Michael Harris and Ozzie Albies are pretty much offensive holes in that lineup and Austin Riley what the hell happened to him?
Braves are cooked this year. Give those bullpen arms up
They need to wait until the deadline to sell. Ozuna and Iglesias need to rebuild their value.
Well that is it! Sell what you can AA!
Just not the year.
Sell, Sell,Sell..
Awful news, Braves may have to revisit selling since this year is done.
Trust in the Double A….
ommmmmm……
And just after the clubhouse guy was finally able to get
“SCHWELLENBACH” on the back of a uniform !!
Now his elbow is Schwellenbach.
Seriously, hate to see this stuff happen to a promising kid.