July 27: The Braves announced this morning that they’ve placed Holmes on the injured list with right elbow inflammation. Right-hander Daysbel Hernandez was recalled to take his spot on the MLB roster.
July 26: Braves manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) that right-hander Grant Holmes is suffering from elbow tightness after exiting his start against the Rangers today after just four innings. Holmes will get his elbow looked at to determine the severity of the issue, but Snitker noted that he’s expected to go on the injured list.
That’s a major blow to an Atlanta rotation that is already struggling to piece together starts. Holmes will join Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach, and AJ Smith-Shawver on the injured list, giving the club a full rotation of injured hurlers. None of that quartet is expected back any time soon, meaning that Snitker will need to make do with the trio of Spencer Strider, Joey Wentz, and Bryce Elder as the only capable starters on his active roster. Long reliever Dane Dunning has at least some starting experience and could be called upon to make a spot start or serve as the bulk arm in a bullpen game.
Outside of the active roster, options are relatively slim at this point. 40-man pitchers like Didier Fuentes, Hurston Waldrep, and Davis Daniel could be called upon to make starts if needed, and if the Braves are willing to create room on the 40-man they could also turn to a non-roster veteran like Ian Anderson or Jose Suarez. Perhaps the Braves could look to add a pitcher to help eat innings down the stretch (such as recently-DFA’d right-hander Erick Fedde), as they did when they acquired Dunning in a swap with the Rangers earlier this month. Such a move is unlikely to land an arm of any real quality, however, as contenders around the league are hungry for pitching help of their own and the Braves aren’t likely to pay a significant price for talent in a season where they’re ten games out of a playoff spot and are buried in the NL East by 15 games.
It’s a bleak outlook overall, and none of those potential replacement figure to offer anything close to the production the Braves have been able to rely on from Holmes this year. A first-round pick by the Dodgers all the way back in 2014, Holmes didn’t make his MLB debut until last year when he joined Atlanta. Since then, he’s been one of the most reliable pieces of the club’s pitching staff with a 3.71 ERA and 3.91 FIP across 179 1/3 innings of work both in the rotation and out of the bullpen. That includes a 3.81 ERA and 4.35 FIP in 111 innings of work as a starter for the club this year.
The 29-year-old Holmes seems very likely to remain firmly in the team’s plans for quite some time after his work the past two years, though those plans could be thrown into question depending on the severity of Holmes’s injury. It’s not uncommon for a bout of elbow tightness to result in little more than a precautionary 15-day stint on the injured list, but given the long recovery times associated with more significant elbow injuries, any issue in that area is cause for concern. It’s impossible to know what sort of timetable for return Holmes might have until the Braves offer an update on his status in the coming days, so until then fans in Atlanta will have to simply hope for the best.
A guy with two last names, Grant Holmes, gets introduced to first names, Tommy and John!
He needs some hair consulting from Ryne Stanek, who sports a much better looking shaggy mop.
This just in: Braves trade Raisel Iglesias for a hamster and two tomato sandwiches.
Iglesias and the hamster must both pass physicals to complete the trade and make it official! It was reported that either Iglesias or the hamster had a hamstring issue! Tomato sandwiches to be divided equally with minor league teams.
Hamster > Gerbil
Some part of Richard Gere just perked up…
“Part”
It hardly matters anymore..
Lost season!
Oh well, that’s the breaks of the game. We are due for some better fortune next season. Just hope there’s no one with voodoo dolls of our starters!
Didn’t we say that last season?
Waldrep struggled earlier in the season, but has been superb in July with an ERA <2. I'll bet he gets recalled for another shot.
Darren O’Day now warming up in the booth.
Can they convert Jesse Chavez into a Starter? He has to still have Braves uniforms after all of the times he has been on the team, off the team, on the team, DFAed and retired!
True. And he can go then fo for the most unretirements.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse Charlie Morton is coming back to ATL.
Where’d you see that?
He’s telling us this from the future to caution braves fans
He is not coming back there. Morton is 100 yrs old.
Breaking: Braves place player to be named later on Injured List.
Breaking: Braves place cash considerations on Il.
Haha nice 👍
Snakebit by injuries a second season in a row.
It’s remarkable every starting pitcher from opening day has made it to the IL this season!
We need to trade guys and get prospects fast. We are only hurting guys values, such as RI by letting him continue to throw that slider as a meatball sandwich for hitters. Why are we waiting so long. Make the deal, someone will take these guys for something. Trade RI, Ozuna, and Montero immediately and find decent pickups for Johnson and bummer. Then go sign whatever veteran that are hanging on to their careers and call up AAA guys to finish our season. We are already out, we are already spiraling, we have to make something positive out of this season
If only there were guys like John Smoltz these days.
Game 5 1996 World Series
8ip 4h 1r 0er 3bb 10k 0hr 0.95era 31bf 135 pitches 79 strikes
45 by contact 16 swinging strikes 18 looking
The saying is true, they don’t make them how they used to.
There’s but one pitcher in the Hall of Fame that has had Tommy John Surgery, his name – John Smoltz.
You’ve been listening to Smoltz on TV too much
NyyfaninLAA land
Great pitcher, great team man, great commentator on baseball, great guy as well. Cry about it.
I loved Smoltz as a player, but I’m not a fan of his commentating. He has a tendency to brag about himself, and he talks history alot when he should be talking about what’s happening on the field. Glavine can analyze a pitcher’s performance without talking about himself. Smoltz can’t.
I know this is a sport-wide issue, but WHAT is going on in Atlanta?? I’m not a Braves fan in the slightest, but it’s bad for baseball that they can’t keep anyone healthy. I don’t follow them close enough to know, but does anyone have a grasp on what the problem is with that team specifically?
I remember when the Mets were habitually the walking wounded and that was 1000% on Jeff Wilpon’s meddling and poor management.
Two things are happening across the majors, first pitchers are placing emphasis on velocity not location. Second, pitchers are not throwing between starts, which Leo Mazzone had the Braves pitchers do during their 14 year run. The Braves during that run had an incredible run of pitcher health.
Three, pitchers are no longer playing other sports in between baseball seasons. Playing baseball or doing baseball drills 365 days a year decreses overal muscle health and wears out tendons and ligaments.
I get all that, but you guys haven’t just lost a pitcher or two. It’s literally everyone and seemingly every year. Is there a Jeff Wilpon forcing guys to come back too quick?
He needs a Tommy John. See you in a few yrs.
Yeah, the best move now is to look for starters on the waiver wire who can at least absorb innings and prevent the minor leaguers and the long-term guys (Strider, Lee, etc.) from wearing out.
To my surprise, Money Mike may have figured it out, thanks to Hyers. Ozzie, at his cost, is a keeper.
Get what you can for Ozuna, Iggy, Johnson, and Montero. Even low-minors lottery-pick guys. Reload for ‘26 and beyond.
They need to get rid of Rick Kranitz. He’s the one common denominator. Here’s a picture of him when he was coaching with the Brewers. If that’s not foreshadowing, I don’t know what is.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Kranitz#/media/File:Ric…
I think the medical staff and most definitely the fact we keep using guys who aren’t built up to handle the work loads. Can’t expect every reliever and/or journey guy to suddenly handled twice the work load.
The Braves went from looking like they had the potential for a lot of quality starters and depth to losing everyone in the starting rotation to start the season.
In the immortal words of Skip Caray and Bill Drake, the hits just keep on coming.!
Just get it over with and trade Ozuna and Raisel. This season is lost.
Baffling they haven’t traded Ozuna yet. This team is toast.
There actually may be more than one team interested. Shocking, I know. There’s still leverage for another couple of days.
Sucks to see John Holmes get injured, he really pounds the zone during every performance.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.