The Braves’ rotation has been a talking point in the early days of spring training, with a few injuries already popping up, leading to speculation about the club looking for an external addition. Atlanta has been connected to pitchers like Lucas Giolito and Chris Bassitt this offseason but Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the club’s interest in those two pitchers was overstated. Burns says they did not seriously pursue Bassitt before he signed with the Orioles and have not been involved with Giolito, who remains a free agent.
It’s a curious spot for the club to be in. Injuries to the starting rotation played a huge role in tanking the 2025 season. They went into the campaign as contenders but ended up at 76-86. Just about every starter got hurt, so that the only guy to surpass 126 innings was Bryce Elder, who posted a 5.30 earned run average.
Going into the winter, general manager Alex Anthopoulos said that bolstering the rotation would be a “point of emphasis” but he hasn’t made any significant changes there. He clearly had some money to spend but has invested it elsewhere, having signed outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, infielder Ha-Seong Kim, as well as relievers Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias to eight-figure deals.
That left the rotation looking vulnerable coming into camp and the picture has only gotten worse since then. Spencer Schwellenbach was placed on the 60-day injured list last week due to elbow inflammation. Hurston Waldrep is now getting checked out due to his own elbow soreness.
The rotation still has some upside, in theory, but with question marks everywhere. Chris Sale is the ace but he’s about to turn 37 years old and has been very injury prone in recent years. Spencer Strider missed most of 2024 due to elbow surgery and had lackluster results when he was back on the mound last year. Reynaldo López only made one start last year due to shoulder surgery. Grant Holmes was diagnosed with a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament last year and is currently trying to return while avoiding surgery.
That group could be a strong front four if everyone is healthy and pitching well but that’s a massive if. The depth beyond that group is also questionable. Martín Pérez and Carlos Carrasco are in the organization on minor league deals but neither inspires a ton of confidence. Didier Fuentes is a notable prospect but he’s only 20 years old and got shelled when called up in emergency fashion last year. Jhancarlos Lara and José Suarez are on the roster but seem to be depth/swing types. JR Ritchie is another of the club’s top prospects but he has only 11 Triple-A starts under his belt.
There’s an argument for adding a reliable veteran to strengthen the back of the rotation, even if it doesn’t raise the ceiling much, but Anthopoulos recently said the club is looking for a playoff-caliber starter. Up until fairly recently, the starting pitching market still had a lot of attractive names on it but Atlanta has not pounced on that opportunity. Guys like Bassitt, Zac Gallen, Nick Martinez, Justin Verlander, Jose Quintana, Chris Paddack, José Urquidy, Tomoyuki Sugano, Aaron Civale, Miles Mikolas, Erick Fedde, Griffin Canning and Germán Márquez have agreed to modest one-year deals in the past week or so.
Perhaps the club will still pivot to add some reliable innings. If they don’t like Giolito, the market still features Zack Littell, Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, Tyler Anderson, Marcus Stroman and others.
It’s also possible the club is out of dry powder. RosterResource projects them for a $264MM payroll and $260MM competitive balance tax number. That payroll is about $50MM above where they finished last year and the CBT number puts them within $4MM of the second tier of the tax, which they may not want to cross.
If it’s the case that there’s no spending capacity left, it looks like a strange offseason for the club. They invested in several areas of the roster but didn’t target the area that was supposed to be a primary focus. Perhaps Anthopoulos can line up a trade of a young pitcher who is cheap and controllable, but the price on such pitchers will be high. Maybe they’ll get lucky and their guys will stay healthier than last year but the injury bug is already biting before spring games have even begun.
Photo courtesy of James A. Pittman, Imagn Images
Anthopolous hates depth. I get it the club is near the luxury tax but how much of these young players’ careers will end his last? The last two off seasons have been borderline dereliction of duty.
*how many years of their careers
Budget Braves back at it again! 4th place it is! And the window will close a little more..
Miami just dumped sure things for younger cheaper more upside. Philly got worse. Mets seem strong though.
Budget Braves?
What do they have, a top 6-8 payroll in all of baseball?
Budget Braves
So once again the rotation needed attention and again it gets neglected. So we lose the entire rotation last year for extended periods of time because of injury and the plan to rely on the same guys who couldn’t stay healthy? AA what are you doing? The frustrating part is he said it’s “an area of emphasis” then neglects it again.
Gio would fit right in.
Yes, right into the broken bin of Braves’ SP
Give Kent Mercker a call!
Rick Mahler is sitting in a BarcaLounger, patiently waiting to hear his Snoopy phone ring.
ATL going to sign MadMax for a cheap 1 yr MLB deal with big incentives.
He won’t go there
An area of emphasis so important that it is not addressed over a questionable Outfielder signing and paying way more for an injury prone shortstop. After already agreeing to a deal with a cheaper costing one. So he’s just hoping that everyone manages to stay healthy or someone is willing to give the Braves an ace and pay most of his salary in the trade too.
Too bad AA didn’t have a low power utility player to send to Boston.
Dubon is not a cheaper option SS. He is a utility player now being forced to an everyday SS role which is less than ideal.
I didn’t like the fa market. No one great. Mets paid a ton for peralta. Be nice to make a trade with the pirates but if not looks like stuck with what we have
Pirates are done trading unless someone has a young cheap good 3b and they would give you Bart and some prospects who aren’t mlb ready.
Mets just unloaded their spare leftovers for Peralta. Top 100 ish not top 50 prospects. Kept the ones they need and the best ones. Braves don’t have that kind of farm system but teams that do will easily make that trade. Didn’t pay a ton at all. They did the minimum to have it a fair trade. Cabrera was very affordable. Oviedo cost 1 borderline top 100. Free agent pitching class was good and deep. Braves just didn’t do what you wanted but there was plenty of options available. Still is. I’d bet on Corbin having 1 more year in him. Have no idea but so cheap it doesn’t matter. Padres in all their moves mathematically should find someone.
Good to see Braves making it easy for rest of NL East
Mets best bet to win east. NL East competition is the NL Central.
Braves used 19 different starting pitchers last year. Everyone in this article may get a chance.
Tanked?…. Definitely wouldn’t classify it as tanking with all the injuries!
Tanking I wouldn’t have claimed the ss. Would have given closer away. Given ozuna away.
Has a major league team lied to their fans more than this group? “We will be a top 5 payroll team.” “We will prioritize starting pitching.” Either way, they are grossly incompetent and when they are throwing bullpen games every 4th and 5th day by June, they will have nobody to blame but themselves.
Not nice and professional of them.
The optimism surrounding this team is odd to me. The rotation is a five alarm fire at this point. Sale and Strider should be ok, but Lopez is not an innings guy, and everyone else is hurt or bad (Elder). I don’t see them being as bad as last year, but they spend a lot of money on position players and should have added at least 1-2 arms they can count on.
Urquidy was a bargain. Corbin might be and is still available. I like Perez but no reason to stop there. At least have a rotation with 2 or 3 5th starters to hang around until trade deadline. Padres are trying that so see how it goes. I’d take Corbin over some of their guys.
Lopez “not an inning guy”? with already 3 x 135+ IP seasons (2 at 180 IP) while a couple serving as RP. They still could add an arm, but top prospects JR Ritchie is almost ready while Martín Perez could get some looks.
The 2/23 they gave yesterzrmski might have gotten Giolito at this point
If $ is a problem that was a waste. Corner outfielders are one of the easiest things to find. Another easy thing to find is relievers. Maybe the starting pitching is great. And it is if this happens and this guy doesn’t decline this guy bounces back this guy doesn’t need his arm cut off.
I doubt that would have gotten Giolito based on his predicted contract, esp early in the offseason. Yaz will see serious reps in LF and is a do-over from Profar who should see more DH duty and LHP ABs. I wonder if they signed Yaz when they found out about Profar’s offseason surgery just reported. If Yaz is anything like how he looked much in KC, he can be a nice find.
The window to win another championship is gonna shut close when Ronnie leaves town. Sale might have 2 years left as an ace. Olson and Riley are the cornerstones that will be left. Drake has the potential to be a third star. Harris is who he is, a streaky player with a great glove. There’s not much in the way of potential major league position players in the minors. The rotation has talent but it’s also a bunch of guys whose arms are set to explode at any moment. AA, do whatever you can to go get us a pitcher. Trade some of these prospects for someone who can help get this team back to playoffs.
Chris Sale going to be a hot commodity at trade deadline
Go get Littell or Corbin and hope for the best. Alex can’t hold the blame all himself. People calling for a change in general managers for the Braves have to realize you still have penny pinching Terry McGuirk in charge
A 260m payroll is penny pinching? You and I have different definitions on that. Yes though we need another innings eater to take some of the load.
I see and hear many contradictions on what Anthopoulos has been saying. The Braves have been spending heavily this off-season, and have improved their depth in the outfield, infield, catcher and the bullpen. So, it makes absolutely no sense that they haven’t added a starter all winter, even before the injuries to Schwellenbach and Waldrep. It sounds nice that they want to add a “playoff caliber” starter, but they will have a hard time even making the playoffs if these starting rotation injuries keep piling up.
Sho lie ohtani, oh well. I still collect his cards.
The Dodgers are ruining baseball yet again…🙈