Not much is going right for the Atlanta Braves at the moment as they’re essentially riding on the excellent pace that they set during the first half of the season as they try to navigate this current rough patch. They certainly need some starting pitching help at the moment and while the following news is defintely good news, it’s not anything that’ll help in the immediate near future.
Still, it’s nice to hear that Spencer Schwellenbach is eying a return for this season. Mark Bowman of MLB.com has reported that Schwellenbach could be heading to the Florida Complex League in the near future and that could be the start of Schwellenbach’s path back to Atlanta’s rotation.
I hate to go full Chip Caray on y’all but if Schwellenbach does indeed make it back for this season and hits the ground running, it would, in fact, be like making a trade after the trade deadline. It would also come at a position of need for the Braves, as the uncertainty that surrounded the rotation heading into this season has finally materialized here in the early second half of the season. Chris Sale and Martín Pérez have emerged as the only truly reliable starters at this particular moment with Spencer Strider injured and inconsistent, Bryce Elder crashing back down to earth and the fifth spot being in complete flux as well.
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Before Spencer Schwellenbach went under the knife to end his 2025 season, he was a consistent source of production on the mound as he delivered an ERA of 3.09 (73 ERA-) and a FIP of 3.25 (81 FIP-) and his career numbers over two seasons have been solid as well with an ERA of 3.23 (77 ERA-) and a FIP of 3.27 (81 FIP-). It would be wishful thinking to see Schwellenbach make his return a seamless one but it sure would be nice to see and something that the Braves would gladly welcome — no matter what the rotation looks like once Schwellenbach eventually makes his return.
Again, this isn’t anything that’ll move the needle right now (and to be quite honest, the words “could” and “likely” are carrying a lot of weight when it comes to Bowman’s reporting here) but it’s good news for the future. Hopefully things will get to the point in the future where Schwellenbach’s return is a luxury and not a desperate need. We’ll see what happens.
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