3 Braves who will definitely make first All-Star Game in 2023

The Braves got ace-caliber stuff from Spencer Strider and there’s no end in sight

Speaking of rookies who came up to the Braves in the 2022 season and found immediate success, it was really a two-man race between Harris and Spencer Strider for who was going to win NL Rookie of the Year. Harris ended up winning out after Strider was taken out of action by a minor injury late in the season, but the young righty looked like a total ace on the hill.

Stache N Gas was in full effect for the Braves young pitcher in the 2022 season at just 23 years old. Strider came out and finished the season with a 2.67 ERA and 0.995 WHIP over 131.2 innings pitched while posting just shy of a 5/1 striketout/walk ratio and with an astounding ERA+ of 152. He pitched like a future Cy Young candidate and every metric says he’s here to stay.

The one concern with Strider down the stretch last year, especially when the injury popped up late in the season, was his durability given that he’d never experienced this type of innings load before, particularly at the major league level. While that is a concern, he held up extremely well in terms of his performance leading up to him getting taken out of the rotation for a bit.

Put simply, Strider looks like the future ace of the Braves, especially with the future of Max Fried seemingly at an uncertain point. As such, I expect to see him put in big spots from the start of the season to the end of it this year. If he simply puts forth the same type of effort that he did as a rookie, he’ll be impossible to keep out of the All-Star Game.

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