The Braves are down yet another starting pitcher.
Wednesday’s sobering news that Spencer Schwellenbach had found a fracture in his throwing elbow, an injury labeled of the “freak” variety by the 25-year-old right-hander, was another major blow to a pitching rotation that had a chance to be one of the better ones in baseball.
But now with Schwellenbach joining Chris Sale and AJ Smith-Shawver on the injured list, and with Reynaldo Lopez having been on the shelf for the majority of the season already, the Braves will be forced to find more starting pitching answers moving forward than they would have hoped when 2025 began.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said Thursday he may rely on the bullpen for Saturday’s game against the Orioles, the second matchup of a three-game series. That was to be Schwellenbach’s turn in the rotation:
“Saturday’s gonna be one of those how-we-get-there’s, see what we got left after (Thursday) and (Friday) and what we need to do,” Snitker said. “We’ll just see where we’re at after (Thursday) and (Friday), and if we need to call somebody up, then we’ll do it. If not, and we can handle it with what we got, then we’ll try and do that.”
Here are a few options the club could consider in the next few weeks when it comes to finding starting pitching help:
Hurston Waldrep
Waldrep, 23, is ranked the organization’s No. 2 prospect by MLB.com and has made 15 starts for Triple-A Gwinnett this season. He has 69 strikeouts in 68⅔ innings, but with a 5.64 ERA and 40 walks. Waldrep, a graduate of Thomasville High School, has four starts in which he allowed four or more earned runs and has given up at least one earned run in all 15 starts.
Nathan Wiles
Wiles threw one inning of relief for the Braves on April 22 in a 10-4 loss to St. Louis, allowing three earned runs on four hits. At Triple-A Gwinnett, he has made 14 starts and gone 3-7 with a 3.08 ERA. Batters are hitting .229 against the 27-year-old.
JR Ritchie
The 22-year-old Ritchie has 14 starts for Double-A Columbus, where he’s 4-4 with a 2.51 ERA. The Braves’ No. 6 overall prospect, Ritchie has a 0.96 WHIP over 75⅓ innings.
Lucas Braun
Braun is ranked the club’s No. 9 prospect by MLB.com. He has made 13 starts at Double-A Columbus. The 23-year-old has a 4.58 ERA, but has walked only 17 batters in 74⅔ innings.
Ian Mejia
The 25-year-old is 8-1 with a 1.96 ERA at Columbus, where he has thrown a complete game and totaled a 0.94 WHIP. Mejia is the No. 23 prospect for the Braves.
Cam Caminiti
Caminiti is 18, so a call-up from Single-A Augusta would be quite the newsmaker, but the club has given 20-year-old Didier Fuentes three starts, so maybe it’s not too far-fetched to think the organization’s No. 1 overall prospect and MLB’s No. 5 left-handed pitching prospect could make his MLB debut this summer. Caminiti has made only nine career professional starts.
The trade deadline
Are the Braves buyers or sellers? If the belief is still simmering that the team can sneak its way into the playoffs, trading for a quality starting arm may be the way to go before the July 31 trade deadline. Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins, Mitch Keller of the Pirates, Zach Eflin of the Orioles and Merrill Kelly of the Diamondbacks are a few of the names that have surfaced in the trade rumor mill.
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