The Atlanta Braves are just a few days away from kicking off Spring Training down in Florida. The biggest storyline swirling around the franchise as they come up to camp is the status of superstar pitcher, Spencer Strider. Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos joined The Steakhouse to update his progression.
As of the beginning of February, Anthopoulos confirmed that three of the rotation's spots are filled with Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, and Spencer Schwellenbach. So what about Strider?
"Strider will appear, the plan is for him to appear at some point in Spring Training games at some point in March," Anthopoulos said. "If he does throw in Spring Training games by the time we break camp, he won't break with us, he should be back sooner rather than later. Again, we're going to be smart about it."
As of this writing, Strider has thrown five bullpen sessions as he continues to prepare for the regular season. According to the Braves general manager, he has "checked all the boxes" throughout the offseason.
"The plan is for him to throw in at a spring training training game," he said. "From [the spring] you would think he transitions into some type of rehab assignment. The maximum that he would pitch on some rehab assignment is 30 days, for a position player it's 20. So, I would say whenever he does the rehab assignment, you've got no more than a month from that point."
History says that the Braves are exceedingly unlikely to keep him down on assignment for a full 30-day period, and Anthopoulos confirmed that.
"Once a guy is built up to go five or six innings and looks good and feels good," he said. "With [Strider's] approval, as well, and make sure he feels good about it, he'll be back in the rotation."
If you read the tea leaves here, it places a Strider return within the first 30 days of the regular season -- or having him miss a maximum of three or four starts.
Anthopoulos also updated the status of Ronald Acuña.
"We expect him to be right behind Strider, but we don't have a date with him," he said. "We just want to make sure that knee is strong. And again, we're sitting here at the beginning of February, so by the time we get to the end of March, we'll know that much more."
He'll be seen throughout the spring taking batting practice, getting DH at-bats, and shagging. There's no rush with Acuña, and their goal is to ensure he is completely ready before they get him back to playing every day.
"We just want to make sure that when he's back, he's elite and we get better production than what we did in 2022 when he first came back."