Before the opening of the 2025 baseball season, the pennant hopes of the Atlanta Braves rested upon an early return by injured stars Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña, Jr.

Strider, the first to return, returned April 16 but returned to the injured list in the blink of an eye, suffering a strained hamstring while throwing before his next scheduled start.

Acuña, just cleared to begin baseball activities, lingers in the minors, still at least a few weeks away.

And the Braves, who opened the year with seven straight losses, still need help – both for a batting order plagued by strikeouts and pitchers who can’t get enough of them.

Still Last

Entering play Tuesday, Atlanta remains the least of the East, sitting in last place since the day the season opened.

Even a four-game winning streak hasn’t helped, with the morale boosted by Strider’s return shattered into multiple shards like a smashed pinata.

Strider, 26, was expected to be the ace of the Braves, filling the vacuum created when Max Fried left via free agency to sign an eight-year, $218 million contract that was the largest and longest ever given to a left-handed pitcher.

Although the compact Strider throws right-handed, he definitely has towering talent: his 20 wins, 281 strikeouts, and 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings led the major leagues in 2023, the last season he was healthy. He also has an 8-0 record against the Philadelphia Phillies, one of two NL East rivals (along with the New York Mets) expected to vie with the Braves for the division title. Since the advent of divisional play, Atlanta has won more division crowns than any other team.

Other Options

With Strider sidelined for at least two weeks, the shaky Atlanta rotation becomes shakier. Veteran Chris Sale, who won his first Cy Young Award last season, is winless after five atypical starts, back-end starter Bryce Elder looks nothing like the All-Star he once was, and both hard-throwing Spencer Schwellenbach and long-maned Grant Holmes lack experience.

Potential Strider replacements include A.J. Smith-Sharver and rookie Hurston Waldrep, both at Triple-A Gwinnett, and ex-Braves Alex Wood, Dallas Keuchel, and Julio Teheran, all of whom are unsigned free agents with considerable baggage.

The bullpen also needs bolstering, especially with closer Raisel Iglesias consistently hit hard since the season opened. Craig Kimbrel, another ex-Brave, has been reacquired and may be ready for recall from the minors soon.

Money, and the unwillingness to spend it on pitching, have been problems for Braves baseball operations chief Alex Anthopoulos.

Reluctant to offer long-term deals to pitchers because of the potential injury risk, he relented when he signed Strider to a six-year, $75 million deal after the 2022 campaign and Reynaldo Lopez for three years and $30 million a year later.

Now both are hurt, with the latter likely to miss many months if not the whole season with a shoulder issue that required arthroscopic surgery.

Though Strider made just two starts last year before undergoing an elbow brace procedure considered less severe than Tommy John surgery, he pitched well in three starts for Gwinnett, posting a 1.32 earned run average and fanning 27 men in 13 2/3 innings.

He yielded two earned runs in his five-inning Atlanta debut against Toronto, throwing 97 pitches in the process.