Braves GM: Rotation to be offseason 'point of emphasis'

Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos met with reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) on Monday. MLBTR already covered some of those comments on Ha-Seong Kim, Sean Murphy and Brian Snitker Tuesday morning. Anthopoulos also spoke about the rotation, which figures to be an offseason priority.

The Braves didn’t make any rotation moves of note last winter. Atlanta’s only significant offseason expenditure was the three-year Jurickson Profar signing. Anthopoulos pointed out that Grant Holmes pitched well before suffering a season-ending elbow injury. Atlanta entered the season with a strong top four of Chris Sale, Spencer Strider (once he completed his rehab from last year’s elbow surgery), Spencer Schwellenbach and AJ Smith-Shawver. That would be a good group if everyone had stayed healthy, but that’s obviously not how things played out.

Atlanta will need to do a much better job stockpiling depth beyond its top five if they expect to compete in 2026. Anthopoulos acknowledged as much, saying the rotation “definitely will be a point of emphasis for us this winter.” Smith-Shawver is already out for most or all of next season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June. Holmes has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. He’s hoping to avoid surgery but admitted last month that he won’t really know whether that’s viable until he begins ramping up a throwing program early in the offseason. Even if Holmes is able to avoid the knife, his elbow health will be something of a question mark next spring.

López made one start before undergoing shoulder surgery that’ll probably end his season. Schwellenbach is coming back from a broken elbow. Sale missed two months with a fractured ribcage, and while that can be written off as a freak occurrence, he’s going into his age-37 campaign. Strider has had a terrible second half and now spots a 4.86 ERA in 20 starts. Hurston Waldrep has looked great since being called up from Triple-A Gwinnett last month, but he’s nine games into his MLB career.

Anthopoulos said the Braves aren’t currently thinking about pushing López back into relief. “I have no idea how the offseason goes, but this was an All-Star starter with a sub-2 ERA (in 2024),” the GM said. “That’s not what I’m projecting for him going forward, but even if you think there’s a regression into the 3s, that’s still an outstanding starter, who’s proven — as a young starter with the White Sox, back-to-back years of 33 and 34 starts, logging innings over 180 twice. … Our thought is definitely him as (a) starter. But what if we have a bunch of starter trades that present themselves and so on? It would be a great problem to have.”

There’s still a decent amount of in-house talent. The Braves need more stability in the middle to the back of the staff. Atlanta has given multiple starts to the likes of Joey Wentz, Carlos Carrasco, Erick Fedde, Cal Quantrill, Davis Daniel and 20-year-old Didier Fuentes this season. Bryce Elder has taken the ball 25 times and leads the club in both starts and innings. That’s clearly not going to cut it. It’d be a surprise if the Braves don’t add at least one pitcher who is guaranteed to be in the Opening Day rotation. They could use two starters, especially if Holmes’ rehab doesn’t pan out, and a swingman who could also provide length for one of the league’s thinner bullpens.

The Braves have Marcell Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias ($16M apiece) coming off the books this winter. Kim would make the same amount if he exercises his player option. Strider’s salary jumps from $4M to $20M, accounting for the other $16M. They’ll have a light arbitration class with a number of non-tender candidates, but their slate of guaranteed commitments could limit their financial flexibility. The front office has been far more inclined to operate through the trade market than via big free agency splashes.