AJ Smith-Shawver set for season debut in opener of Braves-Mets doubleheader

With the calendar about to turn to August, the Braves get another pitcher back off the injured list to make his season debut in the opening game of Wednesday’s road doubleheader at the New York Mets.

AJ Smith-Shawver will make his first major league start back from Tommy John surgery for the 1:10 p.m. ET game at Citi Field.

It appeared that Smith-Shawver, who debuted in 2023 and made 16 appearances (15 starts) over the 2023-25 seasons with a 4-2 record and 3.77 ERA, was coming into his own when his season ended prematurely last May.

Before one bad outing against Washington in what became his penultimate 2025 start, he had a 2.33 ERA through his first six starts last season, striking out 40 batters and walking 17 in 44 1/3 innings.

The right-hander has looked consistently impressive through five rehab starts with Augusta and Gwinnett, posting a 1.53 ERA over 17 2/3 innings with 21 strikeouts and five walks. Over his last two outings at Triple-A, he allowed no earned runs on six hits over 8 1/3 innings, striking out 10 and walking two.

All that to say, he looks ready from all we’ve seen over the last few weeks. If he’s able to carry anything resembling that into his major league return, it would be a big boost for a Braves rotation which has struggled mightily to provide deep, quality outings of late.

On this particular day, it would also be a help to Atlanta if the bullpen didn’t have to be tremendously depleted in the opener of a doubleheader, although having the Chris Sale switch to pull for the nightcap is a nice security blanket for the Braves.

This will be Smith-Shawver’s first career start against the Mets, completing the NL East gauntlet as he’s previously started against the Phillies, Marlins and Nationals.

The Mets will counter with left-hander Sean Manaea (2-5, 4.52 ERA) on the mound for Game 1 of the day.

This will be the third time in as many Braves-Mets series this season that the Atlanta lineup gets a chance to face Manaea. While the southpaw wasn’t particularly bad in either of his first two 2026 starts against the Braves (two runs on four hits over six innings on June 13; six runs (three earned) on five hits over five innings on July 4), he took the loss in both games.

That first start against the Braves was actually his first start of the season after he began the campaign as a bulk-relief option. This season has been somewhere in the middle between his quite good first season with the Mets in 2024 and his quite bad 2025 campaign for New York. He’s allowed 12 home runs, but six of those has been this month, with two coming in each of his first three starts before he delivered a strong six-inning performance with one run on six hits in his last outing against the Dodgers.