This season has been tough for the Atlanta Braves and there’s not been very much to be excited about. A flurry of one-run losses from underperformance by the offense and someuntimely injuries have made 2025 a miserable experience at times. However, there have been little flashes of excitement sprinkled in to keep fans interested especially from Spencer Schwellenbach.
Schwellenbach has continued to impress everyone after a stellar 2024 rookie debut. He’s barely pitched in professional baseball and you’d never know it. The young hurler has a veteran presence on the mound and doesn’t shy away from big moments.
His outing against the Red Sox on Saturday helped propel the Braves to a much-needed win. Schwellenbach tossed 6.1 shutout innings, allowing five hits with no walks, and matched his career-high of 11 strikeouts.
After his thorough domination of Boston, Schwellenbach also became the 16th pitcher in MLB history to have consecutive starts with 11 or more strikeouts and zero walks. Again, we are being treated to some master classes in pitching.
Every single pitch worked well for him against Boston and he had hitters fooled all day. Most impressively he was hitting 99 mph on his fastball even after passing the 90-pitch mark. Schwellenbach even touched 100 mph at one point during his dominant outing.
Spencer Schwellenbach’s continued success could lead to All-Star debut for the Braves
With this run of success, Schwellenbach has just deepened his bid to pitch in front of his home crowd during the 2025 All-Star Game. And if he keeps this up all season, he could pitch himself into the NL Cy Young conversation.
Schwellenbach has a 3.13 ERA through 74.2 innings (12 starts) with 12 walks and 71 strikeouts. He has excelled metrically again with high marks in chase (33.6%), whiff (27.3%), walk (4.3%), barrel (6.9%), and ground ball (47.5%) percentage. His strikeout rate is still respectable at 21% but it is a slight dip from his 25% K-rate in 2024.
The former Nebraska product has improved his average fastball velocity from 95.9 mph to 96.5 mph. It’s been really impressive to see his ability to throw absolute gas even late in games. It’s hard to believe he won’t be representing the Braves at Truist Park among some of MLB’s best.
Don’t expect this to stop anytime soon as Schwellenbach has proven he can make the necessary adjustments to push through some of his early struggles. He and Grant Holmes have also helped Chris Sale get through his rough patch and get back to himself.
Schwellenbach’s tenacity on the mound gives him real ace potential and shows why the Braves drafted him with the knowledge he needed Tommy John surgery. You don’t find pitchers like this often and he’s well on his way to an impressive career.
