Braves Rotation Continues Difficult Task of Navigating Sale's Absence

One moment, Sale is having one of his most memorable nights in an Atlanta Braves uniform. The next moment, he's out for the foreseeable future with fractures in his ribs.

The Braves were already down a couple rotation options before they lost their cornerstone piece. Reynaldo López is looking nowhere close to being back in any capacity, let alone as a starter. AJ Smith-Shawver is out for the rest of this season and likely most of next season too.

Sale was giving the Braves more than quality innings. He was dominating deep into ballgames. In his 10 starts leading up to a trip to the 15-day injured list, he had a 1.23 ERA in 66 innings pitched. He gave the Braves at least seven innings in five of them and at least six innings in eight of them.

"You can't replace Chris Sale," manager Brian Snitker said after Friday night's loss. "We were fortunate last year that we covered some losses, but it's not going to happen every year that you're going to be able to cover it that good."

The Braves managed to patch work holes in the roster last season, but Sale was never an issue. Now, Snitker has the tough task of filling the biggest shoes.

"That's really a tough one," he said. "He's a Cy Young winner. When his spot comes up, you know when he pitches, you expect a win, and when you don't have that, that's a big hole."

There's talent in the Braves system, but it's young and not where it needs to be in its development yet. Didier Fuentes has been called up with the task of figuring out in the Majors because the Braves feel their hands are tied regarding the choices. They could try another minor league arm, but there are no guarantees that it will go any smoother.

"I think they've done a good job," Snitker said. "Really, I don't think anybody's out there trying to do too much and trying to make up for the fact that Chris is not there. I think they're all staying with their games. [Friday] was a blip on the thing, but other than that, starts have been really good."

The starting rotation and the pitching staff overall had been the strongest aspect of the team over the last couple of months. The Braves had a 3.42 team ERA over their last 50 games heading into Friday. It was top five in MLB in that time.

Sale was a huge part of that success, but the rest of the rotation had to be doing something right, too. Schwellenbach can be relied on. Strider is showing signs of figuring it out, even if he's still working on it. Fortunately for the Braves, those are the two starters for the remaining games of the Phillies series.

However, it doesn't take away from the fact that navigating around Sale's absence is hard when already having to navigate other injuries. At one point, it becomes a tall task to absorb the blow.

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