Well, this sucks!
We’re only one week into the season and the Atlanta Braves are already dealing with their first bit of serious adversity as Spencer Strider’s UCL in his throwing arm has been damaged. We still don’t know what the extent of the damage is but either way, we’re not going to be seeing Strider on the mound for a long time. If we’re fortunate, it could just be one of those things where he gets shut down for two months and then re-envaulted. If there’s further damage, he could be out until 2025 at the earliest. Either way, this is horrible news for Strider, the Braves and for neutral baseball observers who just enjoy having healthy star players in the game.
You really have to feel for Strider on a personal and professional level. This is a guy who appears to be as dedicated to his craft as anybody in the game is, which is really saying something when you consider how obsessive the average big leaguer is. He spent the entire offseason working to improve his game by adding a new pitch and all signs were pointing towards this potentially being a special season on the mound for him as an individual. Strider had also been one of the loudest voices from the team when it came to talking about how this season was “World Series or bust” and how much both he and the team wanted to make things right after two straight painful endings to the season.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Strider from an individual standpoint, especially. This was supposed to be the year where we saw Strider continue to establish himself as one of the game’s elite pitchers and the undisputed ace of Atlanta’s rotation. He was supposed to take that opportunity from a strong regular season and build upon it for a prospective deep run in the postseason. Instead, that uphill climb will come in the form of recovery from the damage in his elbow once again. I repeat: It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
However, that’s just how it is and that’s how it’s going to be — not just for Spencer Strider but for pitchers across all levels of baseball. As long as the human body continues to lag behind both advancements in biological science and in baseball’s focus on increasing velocity at all costs, it’s definitely how it’s going to be. Strider isn’t the first pitcher to be put on the shelf for a significant amount of time due to elbow issues and he won’t be the last. Whether you believe it’s the focus on gaining velocity at all costs or the pitch clock playing a major factor in the uptick of pitching injuries, the point is that this is an issue that baseball as a sport will have to reckon with at some point.
Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
In the meantime, it’s also time to figure out how the Braves are going to move on without Spencer Strider for however long he’s going to be out. The good news is that we’re talking about a team that very famously weathered the storm of losing their best player on the path to winning a World Series title, so if any team and organization is already mentally equipped to deal with stepping up in the absence of a superstar, it’s these Atlanta Braves. They’re also equipped in terms of personnel — the Braves entered this season with plenty of organizational depth in terms of starting pitching options. Now granted, it’s going to be nigh-on impossible to truly replace what the top guy on the pitching staff can bring to the table but at least it’s easy to see where the extra help can come from.
Bryce Elder and Dylan Dodd are still around and both got off to very solid starts to the season over in Gwinnett. AJ Smith-Shawver is might be capable of growing up in a hurry if he’s called upon and Hurston Waldrep’s time as a rotation regular could be coming sooner rather than later. That’s not to mention guys like Huascar Ynoa, Allan Winans and Darius Vines waiting in the wings as well. Again, it’s not like any of these guys is going to simply step in and be a like-for-like replacement for a guy like Spencer Strider but they can do enough to keep this team and pitching staff afloat.
(Quick side note: No, the Braves are not going to sign Trevor Bauer. There are plenty of non-baseball reasons, baseball reasons and Brian Snitker reasons as to why it’s not going to happen. If that’s in your mind, forget it.)
That’s also the bright spot for anybody who could potentially be called upon to join the rotation in Strider’s absence: The pressure is off. Any potential replacement doesn’t have to enter the game and shut things down completely — they just have to keep Atlanta’s lineup in any given game. In a bit of a full circle moment, it’s actually a similar situation to when Spencer Strider established himself in Atlanta’s rotation back in 2022.
Whoever steps up doesn’t need to be an ace, they just need to be decently reliable. If they can get that, then the Braves are still going to be in good shape going forward. It really sucks losing Spencer Strider but this is not a situation where all hope is lost. The Braves are title contenders with and without Spencer Strider. It’ll definitely stink not having him for any potential Postseason run but this isn’t going to kill their chances, either. If a nightmare happens and nobody’s able to step up, they could always figure out a way to go outside of the organization for help. As you all are well aware, the Atlanta Braves have an actual wizard for a President/General Manager, so if anybody can figure out a way out of this mess, it’s Alex Anthopoulos.
With that being said, the onus is clearly on the pitching staff to collectively step up. Max Fried has got to reclaim his status as the top guy in the rotation. Charlie Morton and Chris Sale have to serve as the reliable rocks of the rotation. Reynaldo López has to prove the organization right for placing him in the rotation and the bullpen has to be more consistent than ever. As long as that happens and one of the aforementioned starting pitchers can step their game up as well, then the Braves will be fine going forward and the expectations will remain the same.
Still, this really does suck. Spencer Strider has been a joy to watch since his arrival on the scene. Even if he hasn’t been dominating all the time, it’s always been incredibly entertaining to see him pump in fastball after fastball and rack up strikeouts almost like clockwork. Just like when Ronald Acuña Jr. went down with a torn ACL, the game of baseball is worse off without having a pitcher like Spencer Strider.
Here’s hoping that he’ll be able to defy the odds and make a full recovery from this latest setback. Sure, the odds are against him but if anybody’s got the determination to return from such a setback (and hopefully he sees the same doctor who did such a thorough job on Shohei Ohtani’s UCL that the Dodgers still decided to toss Ohtani that fat bag of cash), it’s this guy. The only bright spot I can see at the moment is that Strider will have plenty of time to be able to work on The Art Vandelay Ranking System, so there’s that.
