The Atlanta Braves lost two vital pieces of their rotation this offseason as Max Fried and Charlie Morton joined the AL East. Fried landed with the dreaded Yankees while Morton signed with the Orioles.
This means Atlanta has two voids to fill in their rotation and must do so in a volatile market. External options remain to choose from, but the organization does have a few internal options to consider.
Despite the loss of two of their best pitchers, Atlanta still has a great blueprint heading into 2025. Let’s examine how the Braves’ rotation would look if the season started today.
Here’s how the Braves starting rotation would look if the season started today
The top three of Atlanta’s rotation is pretty much set as Chris Sale re-established himself as an ace in 2024, winning his first Cy Young Award. Reynaldo Lopez outperformed expectations and Spencer Schwellenbach’s rookie season went as well as he could have hoped.
All three of these arms should be able to replicate their success in 2025. Spencer Strider will eventually join the rotation, but recent reports indicate he won’t appear in regular season games for at least a month. Strider does expect a normal spring training and he could return by May or June at the latest assuming no setbacks, though nothing has been etched in stone just yet.
This means Atlanta would have to depend on internal options to fill the backend of their rotation. Hopefully, they will add at least one external option but for the purposes of this article, we will assume they did not.
If the season began today, the Braves rotation may look something like this:
1. Chris Sale
2. Reynaldo Lopez
3. Spencer Schwellenbach
4. Hurston Waldrep
5. Grant Holmes
The top three don’t need a lot of explanation. Sale dominated the National League last season and won his first Cy Young Award thanks to 18 wins, a 2.38 ERA, and 225 strikeouts. Lopez was equally impressive as he wasn’t expected to be a very effective starter. However, he had the lowest ERA of the starting staff with a 2.00 ERA, 42 BB, and 146 K.
Schwellenbach turned in a Rookie of the Year-worthy season with a 3.35 ERA over 123.2 innings. This included 23 walks and 127 strikeouts. He could see some regression but he looked like he had it all figured out last year.
Top 25 Rookie Seasons in 2024 for #FantasyBaseball.
6. Spencer Schwellenbach (SP-ATL)
Season: 123.2 IP, 3.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 4.6% BB, 25.4% K
Schwellenbach was in the Top-10 for rookies (min 80 IP) in ERA (6th), WHIP (4th), K% (7th), BB% (2nd), & K-BB% (4th).#2024RookieRanks pic.twitter.com/kuh9FBerGf
— Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) October 7, 2024
The last two names on this list are Hurston Waldrep and Grant Holmes. Holmes surprised everyone after he made it to the big leagues after 10 years in the minor leagues. Holmes had a 3.56 ERA and spent time in the rotation and bullpen. He walked 15 but struck out 70 over 68.1 innings which made a strong case for him as an option in 2025. Holmes may seem like a weird name to include here given that Atlanta seemingly has higher upside internal alternatives. However, the Braves really like Holmes and he is out of minor league options, so this is more likely than you may think.
Waldrep was called up a little too early in 2024 but it was out of necessity at the time. Despite his unimpressive 16.71 ERA through seven innings, Waldrep showed flashes of his potential. Command is something he will need to improve but he has the stuff to compete if the Braves need him to. He had a collective 3.47 ERA over 4 minor league levels last season with 45 BB and 97 K.
Ian Anderson, Bryce Elder, and AJ Smith-Shawver could all vie for a spot in the rotation just as easily. As we have learned over the last few seasons, pitching depth is a very good thing, and Atlanta has plenty of it. This only improves once Spencer Strider can return.
