NORTH PORT, Fla. — Braves pitcher Bryce Elder’s search for his All-Star form continues.
Elder’s spring has been uneven, the most recent outing a run-filled relief appearance of 2⅔ innings against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday in Fort Myers. He gave up five runs (all earned) on five hits with two walks against two strikeouts. The first two batters homered off Elder, the first a veteran who spent all of 2024 in the minor leagues (Trayce Thompson) and the second a player who has one home run in 159 major league at-bats (Nate Eaton).
After the game, manager Brian Snitker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “It’s just not happening for him right now.”
In the appearance before Sunday, he threw 2⅓ scoreless innings. After the game, Elder acknowledged his frustration with his performance.
“It wasn’t what I wanted,” he told the AJC. “But I thought there were some times I made some pitches. My sinker’s still sinking, and when I stay on the slider, it’s pretty good. It’s a spring-training game. We’ll see where we go forward.”
Elder made the MLB All-Star game in 2023 in his second season at the age of 24, when he had a 7-2 record with a 2.97 ERA over 106 innings before the break. Elder has had a 5.70 ERA over 23 starts in the season and a half since, including 10 in 2024. He spent most of that year with Triple-A Gwinnett.
Pitching coach Rick Kranitz said that Elder came to spring training “really ready” and had added velocity to his fastball. He is around 93 mph, Kranitz said. His four-seam fastball averaged 91.5 last year, according to Statcast data.
He called Elder’s issues a matter of command. “Am I concerned?” Kranitz asked. “No. I know he can pitch.”
Bullpen forming
Snitker said Monday that he has an idea of at least five and possibly six pitchers he is planning to have in the bullpen. “You write down a few names that you know are going to be there, and you put a line under it, then the ‘rest of’ category,” he said.
Closer Raisel Iglesias, Aaron Bummer, Pierce Johnson, and Dylan Lee are locks. Daysbel Hernández likely also is in Snitker’s five. If a sixth has begun to secure a spot, it could be recent addition veteran Buck Farmer, from Georgia Tech and Conyers.
Anderson Pilar, Angel Perdomo, Héctor Neris, Enyel De Los Santos, Dylan Covey and Jake Diekman are the most likely candidates for the final spots. “There’s still a lot of them we want to see more of,” Snitker said.
Regardless of who makes the opening-day roster, it’s highly likely the Braves will use plenty more over the course of the season. They used 21 pitchers out of the bullpen last season and 24 in 2023.
Monday’s game
Defending National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale was bounced around in his third start of the spring, against the Tampa Bay Rays at CoolToday Park. He gave up four runs (all earned) on five hits and two walks against two strikeouts in 3⅓ innings. He gave up one home run.
“In a weird way, it’s a good thing to kind of be challenged like that,” Sale said. “My command was really there, and then it was really not there. Looking back, I had some put-away pitches that I just didn’t make, and on the flip side of that, you don’t want to go out there and stink. We checked some good boxes, and there’s some things to learn and take away from that I can build off of.”
With Jurickson Profar recovering from a bone bruise suffered Saturday and Ronald Acuña Jr. continuing his rehab from surgery to repair a torn ACL, Snitker turned to Ozzie Albies to bat leadoff Monday. He was followed by Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Marcell Ozuna, Michael Harris II, Bryan De La Cruz, Drake Baldwin, Eli White and Orlando Arcia.
