As the Atlanta Braves ramp up for the start of their 2025 season next week when they travel to San Diego to face the Padres in a four game series, this past week more than likely heightened anticipation for Braves’ fans due to Spencer Strider’s spring training debut in which he struck out six batters and allowed no hits or runs through 2.2 innings pitched followed by a Spencer Schwellenbach 10 strikeout outing in which he allowed just two hits and no runs.
Factor in veteran pitcher Chris Sale having a solid spring training with 15 strikeouts through 15 innings pitched with a 3.52 ERA and rookie AJ Smith-Shawver totaling 18 strikeouts through 12 innings with a 3.75 ERA, one would be led to believe the Braves are well on their way to having one of, if not the best, starting pitching rotations in Major League Baseball this season.
However, last season, the Braves had their fair share of several players underperforming expectations and injuries to key players plaguing them resulting in their streak of division titles coming to an end and eventually an early exit from postseason play as they were swept by the Padres in the National League Wild Card Series. Quite the disappointment after their record breaking 2023 season.
Yet, optimism is high for the Braves this season with the returns of Strider and Ronald Acuna Jr., who is expected to return during the month of May as he continues to rehab from surgery to repair a torn ACL he suffered in May of 2024, and on Friday, Steak Shapiro and Rusty Mansell came to agreeance if the Braves can get close to the offensive production from the 2023 season, there is just one thing that could keep the Braves from being the team to beat this year.
“A healthy Chris Sale in Game 1, a healthy Spencer Strider in Game 2. If you start with that in the postseason, with those two guys, I don’t care if the Dodgers roll out the ghost of Babe Ruth and everybody else, you are managing to get to those two guys because those two guys are better than everybody else,” Shapiro said, explaining why he believes a healthy Braves team producing at “80 percent” offensively of what they did in 2023 in addition to their starting pitching are a recipe for the Braves having a dominate season.
