Braves make stunning call-up to address bullpen needs

The Atlanta Braves are calling up one of their top pitching prospects in a stunning move to help their need for pitching, DFA’ing Lucas Luetge as well.

Pitching as a whole has been a concern for the Atlanta Braves this season despite of the team’s overall success. The rotation has been ravaged by injuries, most notably to Max Fried and Kyle Wright, while the bullpen has simply underperformed in relation to expectations entering the year.

So the Braves are making a shocking move to try and stop the boat from taking on water in that regard.

On Tuesday, the team announced that they’d selected the contract of 20-year-old right-handed pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver, the team’s No. 4 prospect according to MLB Pipeline and a seventh-round pick out of high school in 2021. Atlanta is also designating Lucas Luetge for assignment as the corresponding move.

Astonishingly, Smith-Shawver started the 2023 season in Rome playing High-A ball but has made his way to the majors in just about two months time, a wild ascension through the system.

Braves news: AJ Smith-Shawver called up after starting season in Single-A

Smith-Shawver’s brief stint in Triple-A with the Gwinnett Stripers was apparently enough to warrant the Braves completing his rapid rise through the organization. He started just two games for Gwinnett, posting a 3.00 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 12.0 innings pitched for the Stripers, really showing that, even though he only began pitching in 2020 in high school, he could very well be major-league ready.

The newest member of the Braves’ ascension isn’t dissimilar from that of Spencer Strider, who went from High-A to a brief stint in Atlanta in the 2021 season, but that was over the course of the entire year. Smith-Shawver, meanwhile, made that climb in just a couple of months.

It has not yet been disclosed what role Atlanta plans to have for AJ Smith-Shawver at the major league level, but it does stand to reason that, with DFA’ing the struggling Luetge and with his relative lack of overall experience, he’ll likely start his MLB career in the bullpen. Even still, though, all eyes will be on the kid whenever he makes his debut given this incredible story and rise.