The Braves rotation has suddenly become a strength in Atlanta

In about a month’s time, the Braves’ rotation has gone from an alarming concern to the strongest facet of the team.

Atlanta elected to let Max Fried and Charlie Morton go in free agency, citing Spencer Strider‘s return and Grant Holmes‘ emergence as reasons why. Then, the season began and everything went wrong.

Reynaldo Lopez suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery. Strider threw once before a strained hamstring landed him back on the injured list. A.J. Smith-Shhawver stumbled out of the gate, along with Chris Sale, and Ian Anderson didn’t even make it through Spring Training. About the only steady presence in the rotation during the early goings of the 2025 campaign was Holmes and Spencer Schwellenbach.

A month later, the entire Braves rotation looks as formidable as any in baseball. Strider is set to return next week against the Nationals, but it’s all of the other guys that are hitting their strides that make this unit elite.

After posting a 6.63 ERA through his first four starts, Sale has now found his footing, putting together a 1.72 ERA over his past five starts. He’s coming off a gem of an outing against his former team, notching eight strikeouts and allowing just one run on five hits and two walks over seven innings against the Red Sox.

Holmes’ 4.14 ERA might not jump off the screen, but he’s been much better than that stat line indicates. Even still, that’s league average for any starter, let alone a back-of-the-rotation arm.

Schwellenbach stumbled after a scorching start but has regained his footing as of late. Across nine starts, he owns a 3.31 ERA. That’s with two outings in which he allowed nine earned runs in just 9.2 innings.

Perhaps most impressively, though, AJ Smith-Shawver is now making noise in the Rookie of the Year race. He’s coming off a start in which he went six strong, as the Washington lineup mustered just two hits and one unearned run. He now boasts a 2.33 ERA across seven starts, which is even more incredible when you consider the kind of start he had.

Hell, even Bryce Elder was pitching well before he was optioned to Gwinnett. He’d gone at least five innings in each of his last five starts, good for a more than respectable 3.10 ERA before the club demoted him to Triple-A in anticipation of Strider’s return.

Put all of that together, along with a surprisingly potent relief core, and the Braves have the second-best ERA (2.17) since May 4. What was once a concern has now turned into a strength.

There are not many rotations that can compare to Spencer Strider, Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, A.J. Smith-Shawver, and Grant Holmes.

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David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire

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