PITTSBURGH — While recognizing the decision is not his, Braves ace Spencer Strider declared himself ready to come back from his right hamstring strain Sunday after a bullpen session at PNC Park on Saturday.
“I feel good to go, but admittedly, I haven’t pitched in three weeks, so I won’t be shocked if they don’t feel comfortable about running me out there,” said Strider, eager to get going after elbow surgery cut short his 2024. “I’ve made my availability known, and beyond that it’s up to them.”
Now the club, which finished its three-game road series with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, has a puzzle to solve that it might not have anticipated even a couple weeks ago.
What pitcher can be spared to send down?
Considering the Braves are still without one of the starters expected to be a pillar of the rotation (Reynaldo López, out with a shoulder injury that will keep him from throwing for another seven weeks) and have feverishly shuffled through relievers in search of a workable combination, the depth is not what anyone might have expected.
“I’m not surprised,” Strider said. “Those guys, they’re talented. They work hard and they want to succeed, so they’re great to have around. I think for them to have consistent opportunities and consistent roles, too, has been helpful, and I think we’re going to continue to see them succeed.”
Manager Brian Snitker has 13 spots of his 26-man roster that must be filled with pitchers. The obvious candidates to be taken off the active roster are those with options to be sent down to Triple-A Gwinnett, starters AJ Smith-Shawver and Bryce Elder and relievers Daysbel Hernández and Dylan Lee.
But Smith-Shawver has put together three effective starts (1.42 ERA in 19 innings) since returning from Gwinnett in April. He came close to no-hitting the Cincinnati Reds on May 5 and then followed it up by limiting the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run and five hits (all singles) in 5⅔ innings Saturday.
“I feel like I’m starting to get in a nice routine,” Smith-Shawver said Saturday after the team’s 11-inning win.
After an unsatisfactory 2024 and a slow start this season, Elder likewise appears to have found a groove. In his past four starts, he has looked like the pitcher who earned an All-Star berth in 2023 with a 3.52 ERA and 20/7 strikeout-walk ratio in 23 innings.
“We’re kind of rolling now, especially with ‘Strides’ kind of being banged up a little bit, kind of picking him up,” Elder told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday. “I think it’s been good. I think we kind of feed off each other and keep going.”
It’s not what you would have anticipated not so long ago. In his first three starts this season in place of Lopez, Elder had a 7.20 ERA and gave up five home runs in 15 innings. Smith-Shawver was likewise roughed up, prompting his getting sent down to Gwinnett after three starts.
And, going further back, this was a rotation that lost Max Fried and Charlie Morton in the offseason to free agency even before Lopez sustained his long-term injury.
If Smith-Shawver or Elder weren’t giving the Braves a chance to win, it’d be an easy decision to send one down to Gwinnett. But not now.
Further, with the team in the midst of a 17-game stretch without any days off, it might make sense to bring on Strider without a rehab assignment and shift to a six-man rotation of Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Grant Holmes, Elder, Smith-Shawver and Strider.
But that would necessitate lightening the bullpen by one, and the only two players with options to be sent down, Lee and Hernández, seem indispensable. Lee has a 2.25 ERA in 16 innings of relief. Hernández has a 2.00 ERA in 18 innings.
Snitker, who has relied on both for high-leverage situations, would presumably be loath to part with either, even for a temporary minor-league assignment.
Recent pickup Scott Blewett might have seemed like a candidate to be designated for assignment if the team needed a roster spot.
Acquired in an April 20 trade from the Baltimore Orioles for cash considerations, Blewett has had two shaky outings out of six, but was brilliant in his past two appearances. In extra-inning games against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, he held both teams scoreless in the 10th and 11th innings to help the Braves win both. He’d be an unlikely DFA candidate now.
This is a group that has more than done its part.
Starting two weeks back (April 27) through Saturday, the Braves had the second-lowest bullpen ERA in the majors (2.34) and the lowest WHIP (0.97). This from a bullpen that president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos said in spring training that he expected to have “churn,” even into the season.
Remember, too, that the Braves are without dominant setup man Joe Jiménez, potentially out for the season after knee surgery following last season.
“Golly, I can’t say enough about all those guys,” Snitker said of his relievers Saturday. “You leave spring training, you don’t really know where you’re going to be, who you’re going to lean on, and they kind of define all that as you use them. These guys have been great. We’ve needed every one of them.”
What does Anthopoulos do?
Smith-Shawver, still just 22, could be returned to Gwinnett for more development. Or maybe a reliever (maybe Rafael Montero?) happens to come down with an injury and goes on the injured list.
Things could change, as they tend to do. Elder or Smith-Shawver may regress in time. Someone else could get hurt.
But, in the middle of May, the Braves pitching staff looks like it is in pretty good shape and about to get stronger with the return of Strider.
Now, the offense on the other hand …
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