Braves targeting surprising answer to pitching injury woes?

It’s clear the Braves are leaving no stone unturned in finding an answer to their pitching injuries, but they might have a surprising solution in the works. 

Though Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos has remarked that the club won’t overreact and try to make a trade to fill the hole on the pitching staff left by injuries to Max Fried, Kyle Wright and Ian Anderson, the club has been active looking at options.

On Tuesday night against the Rangers, Jared Shuster was called up from Triple-A for another chance to earn his spot in the big leagues. Meanwhile, Atlanta has also signed veterans Justus Sheffield and Dereck Rodriguez as possible options to fill the injury-created void. But their best option might still be in the works down in the organization’s farm system.

The Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers called up the Braves‘ No. 4 prospect, right-handed pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver, to the roster on Tuesday and plan to start him on Friday night in Memphis, per Justin Toscano of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

This move comes less than a months after Smith-Shawver made his Double-A debut in Mississippi. But could there be a larger plan in the works?

Braves prospect AJ Smith-Shawver could be on fast track to help amid pitching injuries

Just last year amid injuries to Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuña Jr., and others, the Braves made the unorthodox move to call up Michael Harris Jr. and Vaughn Grissom straight from Double-A. The plan turned out to be genius as Harris won NL Rookie of the Year and both contributed hugely to Atlanta capturing the NL East crown yet again.

Could they be planning something similar with AJ Smith-Shawver?

The 20-year-old, who was a seventh-round pick out of Colleyville Heritage High School in Texas back in 2021, has been lights-out in High-A and Double-A, yet to allow a run over five starts and 21.0 innings pitched.

Considering that the Braves have moved Smith-Shawver to Triple-A by May after he started the season in High-A ball, it’s clear that the organization likes what they see from the righty who already is touching the mid-to-high 90s with his fastball and has a nasty slider. And given what they did with Harris and Grissom a year ago, it’s possible that, amid their injury situation on the pitching staff, they look to give the young hurler a proverbial tryout in Triple-A to see if he can be a band-aid until Fried and/or Wright returns from the IL.

Perhaps that’s not the plan, it should be said. There is a chance that they are moving Smith-Shawver up the farm system because of how dominant he’s been and he won’t move past Gwinnett this year. Given the situation, though, it can’t be ruled out that we could see the organization’s No. 4 prospect in the majors much sooner than expected.