{"id":40265,"date":"2025-03-11T06:25:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T06:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=40265"},"modified":"2025-03-11T06:25:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T06:25:51","slug":"breaking-bryce-elders-struggles-continuing-in-braves-spring-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=40265","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Bryce Elder\u2019s struggles continuing in Braves spring training"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Atlanta<\/p>\n

NORTH PORT, Fla. \u2014 Braves pitcher Bryce Elder\u2019s search for his All-Star form continues.<\/p>\n

Elder\u2019s spring has been uneven, the most recent outing a run-filled relief appearance of 2\u2154 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).<\/p>\n

After the game, manager Brian Snitker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, \u201cIt\u2019s just not happening for him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

In the appearance before Sunday, he threw 2\u2153 scoreless innings. After the game, Elder acknowledged his frustration with his performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t what I wanted,\u201d he told the AJC. \u201cBut I thought there were some times I made some pitches. My sinker\u2019s still sinking, and when I stay on the slider, it\u2019s pretty good. It\u2019s a spring-training game. We\u2019ll see where we go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

ExploreMore AJC coverage of the Atlanta Braves<\/section>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Pitching coach Rick Kranitz said that Elder came to spring training \u201creally ready\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

He called Elder\u2019s issues a matter of command. \u201cAm I concerned?\u201d Kranitz asked. \u201cNo. I know he can pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bullpen forming<\/b><\/p>\n

Snitker said Monday that he has an idea of at least five and possibly six pitchers he is planning to have in the bullpen. \u201cYou write down a few names that you know are going to be there, and you put a line under it, then the \u2018rest of\u2019 category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Closer Raisel Iglesias, Aaron Bummer, Pierce Johnson, and Dylan Lee are locks. Daysbel Hern\u00e1ndez likely also is in Snitker\u2019s five. If a sixth has begun to secure a spot, it could be recent addition veteran Buck Farmer, from Georgia Tech and Conyers.<\/p>\n

Anderson Pilar, Angel Perdomo, H\u00e9ctor <\/b>Neris, Enyel De Los Santos, Dylan Covey and Jake Diekman are the most likely candidates for the final spots. \u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of them we want to see more of,\u201d Snitker said.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who makes the opening-day roster, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s game<\/b><\/p>\n

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 3\u2153 innings. He gave up one home run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a weird way, it\u2019s a good thing to kind of be challenged like that,\u201d Sale said. \u201cMy command was really there, and then it was really not there. Looking back, I had some put-away pitches that I just didn\u2019t make, and on the flip side of that, you don\u2019t want to go out there and stink. We checked some good boxes, and there\u2019s some things to learn and take away from that I can build off of.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Jurickson Profar recovering from a bone bruise suffered Saturday and Ronald Acu\u00f1a 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bryce Elder\u2019s search for his All-Star form of 2023 continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING: Bryce Elder\u2019s struggles continuing in Braves spring training - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=40265\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Bryce Elder\u2019s struggles continuing in Braves spring training - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bryce Elder\u2019s search for his All-Star form of 2023 continues.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=40265\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-11T06:25:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PICTURE-1300-x-1500-px-70.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MsNga\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MsNga\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=40265\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=40265\",\"name\":\"BREAKING: Bryce Elder\u2019s struggles continuing in Braves spring training - 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