Waldrep and Schwellenbach set to undergo surgery

The Braves provided updates on Wednesday regarding their two injured pitchers, Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep, both of whom are dealing with loose bodies in their respective elbows.

According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Schwellenbach underwent surgery today, and Waldrep will undergo the same procedure on Monday. As of now, there is no timeline for their return. Both will begin the season on the 60-day IL, but the Braves continue to maintain that they could return at some point this season.

Looking at it from a glass-half-full perspective, that could feasibly happen around the All-Star break. However, if this recent stretch of injuries over the last several years has taught us anything, banking on pitchers to return from major surgeries and immediately pick up where they left off almost never works out. It’s far more likely that both Waldrep and Schwellenbach never throw a pitch for the Braves in 2026 than it is that they have a significant impact.

That leaves Atlanta with an extraordinarily short-handed rotation for at least the first several months of the season. Bryce Elder enters Spring Training as the clear frontrunner for the final spot, with veteran Martin Perez and prospects JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes behind him.

Even after these two devastating injuries, there’s still a chance the Braves make it work with their starting pitching. But they are going to need a lot of things to break their way, and after everything that’s transpired over the last 18 months, it’s becoming harder by the day to view things through a positive lens.