The injury bug bit the Atlanta Braves hard again with Spencer Strider suffering an oblique injury less than a week ahead of Opening Day. The injury will knock him out for the season opener, giving Atlanta five starting pitchers on the IL.
Strider will start the season on the IL with an oblique strain
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 23, 2026
Strider joins Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, Hurston Waldrep and Joey Wentz as starting pitchers on the IL, and there isn't a timeline for any of these pitchers to return. If an IL this lengthy doesn't lead to action from Alex Anthopoulos, I don't know what will. Anthopoulos should be eager to acquire any help he can get.
Projected Braves rotation without Spencer Strider
When healthy, the starting rotation might be the Braves' biggest strength. Unfortunately, Strider's injury makes it so that 60 percent of Atlanta's projected Opening Day rotation is on the IL, and their current starting staff is quite subpar.
Braves Rotation Order | Pitcher |
|---|---|
SP1 | Chris Sale |
SP2 | Reynaldo Lopez |
SP3 | Grant Holmes |
SP4 | Bryce Elder |
SP5 | Jose Suarez |
At least Chris Sale is healthy, but it's not as if he lacks an injury history. Reynaldo Lopez is healthy too, but his velocity was down last time out, causing concern. Grant Holmes is pitching and had a strong spring, but he also isn't 100 percent.
Braves likely rotation to start the season:
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) March 23, 2026
Chris Sale
Reynaldo Lopez (FB averaged 89.4 mph yesterday)
Grant Holmes (MRI showed UCL tear in August)
Bryce Elder (5.30 ERA in 2025)
Jose Suarez (More teams (2) than starts (1) since start of 2025)
Again, the need for external options is abundantly clear, especially if the Braves don't plan on having Didier Fuentes start games for them right now. Fortunately, there are a couple of different avenues for the Braves to consider when it comes to additions.
Starting pitching trade candidates Braves should pursue
Dean Kremer
The Baltimore Orioles made a surprising decision, demoting Dean Kremer to Triple-A ahead of Opening Day. This doesn't mean Kremer is a bad pitcher by any means, but the Orioles figured Kremer is their sixth-best starter and that since they have several off-days in April, they wouldn't have a need to use six starters. Kremer is an outstanding depth piece that Baltimore surely values, but clearly, he's movable as he's off their MLB roster entirely right now.
The O's won't just give him away, but Atlanta has every reason to be aggressive here. The Braves need starting pitching, and should be willing to pay a premium. Kremer is far from special, but he's thrown at least 125 innings in each of the past four years while posting a sub-4.00 ERA in that span.
Kremer is an upgrade over guys like Bryce Elder and Jose Suarez, doesn't make too much money, has an additional year of control, and, as the Orioles have made clear, can be optioned to Triple-A this season without being exposed to waivers. Making trades for legitimate contributors is tough this time of year, but Kremer is as realistic as it gets in that department.
Luis Severino
The Athletics need to add starting pitching and not trade it away, but it feels like the pairing with Luis Severino just hasn't worked from the start. It was strange that the penny-pinching A's of all teams were willing to pay him to begin with, and all that's happened since is Severino complaining about the conditions in Sacramento and pitching mostly poorly.
Given his clear disdain for Sacramento and his contract (he's making $25 million this season and has a $22 million player option for 2027), the A's have reason to trade him, even if they're making a bad pitching staff worse in the process. The Braves might not covet him, but Severino has thrown at least 162 innings in each of the last two seasons, and while he struggled at home in 2025, he pitched well on the road, posting a 3.02 ERA away from Sacramento.
He shouldn't cost much to acquire, and since the Braves are already saving money from Jurickson Profar's suspension, they have little excuse not to make a major addition.
Joe Ryan
Is a Joe Ryan trade realistic right now? Absolutely not. However, I didn't think the trades Alex Anthopoulos made for guys like Sean Murphy, Matt Olson and Chris Sale were realistic when considering what they gave up and those happened, so why can't he pull this off? If anyone would come through with a stunning trade and an extension, it'd be Anthopoulos.
And there's reason to believe a deal would make sense for both sides. I don't have to explain Atlanta's perspective - they need starting pitching and Ryan is an All-Star at that position. As for the Minnesota Twins, it'd take some convincing, but are they really in a position to compete? They lost Pablo Lopez for the year and made no major offseason moves to improve on a team that sold half its players at last year's deadline and won just 70 games.
The Twins should be tearing it all down, and Ryan is their most valuable asset. He's also only under control through 2027, so their best chance to sell as high as possible on him would be right now, especially with the Braves in desperation mode.
Free agent starting pitchers the Braves must consider signing
Lucas Giolito
Big trades are hard to pull off right before Opening Day, but free agent signings are not difficult at all this time of year, making it downright shocking that Lucas Giolito isn't an Atlanta Brave by now. I thought Giolito made sense before Spencer Schwellenbach suffered his injury. He made even more sense after Hurston Waldrep needed elbow surgery of his own. Giolito was linked to Atlanta more than any other team this offseason. What are the Braves waiting for? Would they really not take him at this point?
Giolito wasn't as good as his 3.41 ERA would indicate, but at the very least, he can eat innings. He threw 145 innings in 26 starts last season with the Boston Red Sox and averaged almost 175 innings per year in his three seasons before his 2024 injury.
He's an upgrade over the likes of Elder and Suarez, and it's really hard to envision that he's asking for a truly outlandish amount of money at this point. Giolito might not be perfect, but beggars cannot be choosers, especially when it comes to starting pitching.
Patrick Corbin
It's easy to dismiss the idea of signing Patrick Corbin since he was one of the worst starters in the sport after helping the Washington Nationals win the 2019 World Series, but he was serviceable in 2025 for a Texas Rangers team that needed starting pitching help. The southpaw posted a 4.40 ERA in 31 appearances (30 starts) and 155.1 innings of work.
Would the Braves not take that? I mean, Bryce Elder was their only starter who made more than 23 starts and threw more than 130 innings in 2025, and he posted a 5.30 ERA, a mark nearly a full run higher than Corbin.
You can do a lot worse with a depth option.
Nestor Cortes
Nestor Cortes' 2025 season was one to forget, as he posted a 6.29 ERA in eight starts and missed substantial time with injuries. It might not be appealing to sign a free agent who has dealt with his share of injuries coming off a brutal year when the Braves are in an injury crisis themselves, but few, if any, free agent starters have more upside than Cortes.
Now, I should say Cortes is expected to miss much of the year while rehabbing an injury, but is there such a thing as too much depth at this point? Plus, Cortes could be quality depth.
The southpaw was an All-Star in 2022 and had a 3.77 ERA in 31 appearances (30 starts) in 2024. Everyone remembers him giving up the Freddie Freeman walk-off home run in that year's World Series, and understandably so, but Cortes was a remarkably consistent contributor during that regular season and for much of his New York Yankees tenure. It wouldn't be shocking at all to see him make some important starts down the stretch and pitch well in those outings. He wouldn't cost much, and if it doesn't pan out, it's not as if the Braves would've had to give anything up other than a bit of money.
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