There Are Alternatives For The Atlanta Braves To Replace Spencer Strider.

Major League Baseball’s elbow epidemic has claimed the life of Atlanta Braves star Spencer Strider. He will not need a second Tommy John surgery, but he will miss the rest of the 2024 season due to an internal brace implantation procedure.
One of baseball’s most dominant pitchers the previous season was Strider. With 20 victories and 281 strikeouts, he led MLB. With a 2.85 FIP, he led the National League and had a strikeout percentage of 36.8%, which was 5.3 points higher than any other qualified starting pitcher in the game. He was a popular choice to win the Cy Young Award this year at the age of 25, but after just two starts, he experienced elbow soreness. It is now the end of his season.
While pitching for Clemson in 2019, he had Tommy John surgery for the first time. He studied how great pitchers get ready to throw hard and gained a deeper understanding of the mental aspect of the game as a result of the experience. After being selected, this allowed him to improve his breaking ball’s sharpness and velocity, and he became one of the league’s top pitchers.

What he will look like upon his return the next year is still unknown. As they attempt to win 100 games for the third straight season, the Braves are without their greatest pitcher. Right now, FanGraphs’ Roster Resource only includes Max Fried, Reynaldo López, Charlie Morton, and Chris Sale as the team’s four starting pitchers. López is a converted reliever, Fried, Sale, and Morton are all past 40 years old, and they have all experienced recent injury problems. To make it through the season, the team will probably need to add more pitching from the lower leagues and maybe through trade.

Internal Options

All six of the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers’ starting pitchers with Major League experience are on the Braves’ 40-man roster; however, Ian Anderson is currently out with an injury.

It appears that Bryce Elder is the most likely candidate to be called up to Atlanta. With a 3.81 ERA, he made the All-Star squad and started 31 games in the major leagues last season. But he posted a 5.11 ERA in the second half and had the fourth-lowest strikeout percentage in MLB among eligible starters (17.5%). In Game Three of the Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, he was unable to complete the third inning and gave up six runs, including two home runs. This year, throughout four starts during spring training, he gave up 11 runs and 22 baserunners in 12 innings.
At the age of just 20, AJ Smith-Shawver made five starts for the Braves in the previous season. According to MLB Pipeline, he is presently the organization’s #1 overall prospect. Although he has a fastball that is in the mid-to-high nineties, he has to work on command and refine his secondary offerings. This year, he has allowed 10 of the 19 batters he has faced to reach base in his two outings at Gwinnett.

Huascar Ynoa, who pitched for portions of four seasons in Atlanta from 2019 to 2022, is a familiar face to Braves fans. His own Tommy John surgery kept him out of the 2023 season. Righty Allan Winans and lefty Dylan Dodd are further choices. With ERAs over 6.00, they have each made seven MLB starts in their careers.

External Options

The Braves will likely have to rely on their minor league depth for a few months at least, since the trade market often doesn’t heat up until June. The MLB landscape will be highly competitive this year due to the large number of frontline starters who have had elbow ailments.

Pitchers who are the focus of trade rumors typically have three characteristics: 1) they are on a club that won’t make the playoffs, 2) they are pitching well, and 3) they could soon be free agents. While it’s far too early to make any assumptions about the first two criteria, a few pitchers stick out as possible deadline movers who the Braves would be interested in.

For a while, Freddy Peralta was the third ace on the Milwaukee Brewers. However, after Corbin Burnes was moved to the Baltimore Orioles and Brandon Woodruff became hurt, Peralta is currently the only ace on the team. He has maintained an ERA below 4.00 for the past four seasons and has a career strikeout total of 11.7. Under his contract, he has extremely appealing $8 million annual team options for the 2025 and 2026 season. It will cost a king’s ransom in prospects if the Brewers are interested in selling him, which is unlikely given his inexpensive contract options and the possibility that they would press for a postseason bid.
This offseason, the San Diego Padres traded two starting pitchers to the Kansas City Royals. Seth Lugo agreed to a $45 million, three-year contract that included an opt-out clause after the second year. After switching to relief, he started 26 games with a 3.57 ERA in the previous season. Michael Wacha consented to a $32 million, two-year contract with the option to opt out during the 2024 campaign. He has made 47 starts in 2022 and 2023 with a 3.27 ERA. The Royals are already 9-5, but they lost 106 games in the previous season, so they may be sellers at the deadline.

This offseason, Jack Flaherty inked a $14 million, one-year contract with the Detroit Tigers. In his career, he has had many highs and lows, and his most recent performances have not been the best. Detroit might make him available if he can change his direction. Despite finishing in second place in the AL Central last year with a 78-84 record and an 8-4 start to the current season, the team hasn’t finished above.500 since 2016.
The Braves might not even need to look outside for pitching if Elder, Smith-Shawver, or some of the other young pitchers prove themselves and the other senior starters continue to be healthy and productive. But there are a number of situations in which the team might have to compete with other teams this summer to get the best trade targets. There will never be a replacement for Strider, whether they come from within or without.