Braves set MLB record nobody should be proud about
Among the many bizarre storylines from the Braves’ disastrous 2025 campaign, perhaps none sums it up better than this: Atlanta set an MLB record by using 71 different pitchers in a single season. Had someone predicted that before Opening Day, it would’ve been much easier to envision the Braves missing the playoffs for the first […] The post Braves set MLB record nobody should be proud about appeared first on SportsTalkATL.com.
Among the many bizarre storylines from the Braves’ disastrous 2025 campaign, perhaps none sums it up better than this: Atlanta set an MLB record by using 71 different pitchers in a single season.
Had someone predicted that before Opening Day, it would’ve been much easier to envision the Braves missing the playoffs for the first time in eight years. This was a team that lost two cornerstones to its rotation last offseason — Max Fried and Charlie Morton — and also lost its top two setup men in A.J. Minter, who signed with the Mets, and Joe Jiménez, who went down with an injury. Despite losing nearly 500 innings of production, the Braves chose not to spend a single dollar on pitching last winter, instead attempting to replace everything internally.
That gamble backfired. The Braves entered the year with minimal pitching depth, and once injuries began to pile up, their season quickly spiraled. Alex Anthopoulos worked tirelessly to find stopgap solutions, but the real fixes should have come months earlier in free agency.
The state of Atlanta’s rotation is best reflected by the fact that Bryce Elder, who didn’t even make the Opening Day roster, ended up leading the team in innings pitched. He made 28 starts, logging over 150 innings with a 5.30 ERA.
If there’s one takeaway from this season, it’s that the Braves can’t afford another offseason of ignoring their pitching staff. Injured arms returning will help, but that alone won’t be enough. Pitchers coming off significant injuries are incredibly volatile. How they bounce back is out of the Braves’ control, but what they can control is the options around them if/when things start to go wrong.
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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
The post Braves set MLB record nobody should be proud about appeared first on SportsTalkATL.com.
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