Braves decision not to land starting pitcher at trade deadline looks even worse now

The Atlanta Braves were cursed with injuries as bad as any other team in the league this year. They may not have the highest quantity of injured players, but they saw both their best pitcher and their best position player lose their seasons to major surgical procedures. Spencer Strider had surgery on a torn UCL and Ronald Acuña Jr. had surgery on a torn ACL.

That left Atlanta with big holes in their roster to fill if they wanted to compete. Despite the injury to Strider, a poor performance from Bryce Elder and overall youth in the depth of their pitching staff, Atlanta's GM Alex Anthopoulos opted not to trade for a starter at the trade deadline.

This decision has already caused concern for Braves fans after reliever turned starter, Reynaldo Lopez went down with forearm inflammation and tightness. Lopez is likely going to need monitored the rest of the season. Now, one of their young starters is joining Lopez as a pitcher whose workload will be heavily monitored.

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Braves to push Schwellenbach start back to manage his workload

According to Braves beat writer Justin Toscano, the Braves are skipping rookie Spencer Schwellenbach's turn in the rotation in order to manage his workload going down the stretch. Toscano notes that Schwellenbach has already thrown 40 more innings than he did last year. He also notes that this is to get ahead of it before he's overworked and run into the ground.

That puts the Braves starting rotation at Chris Sale and Max Fried leading the way. They're followed by Lopez, whose battling injuries himself right now. Schwellenbach is well over his career high in innings and his workload will be under heavy watch down the stretch. Charlie Morton has been a consistent piece for Atlanta despite having a few rough starts recently.

After that, it's Bryce Elder, who's been horrible, and another crop of young talent like Hurston Waldrep and AJ Smith-Shawver.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but for weeks leading up to the deadline, it was obvious that Atlanta needed a starter. It's even more obvious now than it ever was.

Atlanta could be cursed down the stretch by the hesitance of their general manager Alex Anthopoulos. I would expect to see AJ Smith-Shawver, the team's top prospect, back in the big leagues here soon. Atlanta can't continue to trot Elder out there, especially if Lopez continues to miss time and Schwellenbach can't see a normal workload.