The Braves Need To Make A Rotation Splash

The Braves have been aggressive this offseason, signing four free agents (Raisel Iglesias, Ha-Seong Kim, Robert Suarez and Mike Yastrzemski) to deals that pay eight figures annually. They also bolstered their infield depth with the Mauricio Dubón trade, taking on nearly $5MM for the difference in arbitration salaries between Dubón and Nick Allen.

Their free agent activity has already been out of character compared to Alex Anthopolous’ previous offseasons. They love to re-sign their players, so it wasn’t a huge surprise they brought Kim and Iglesias back, yet they hadn’t given out more than one free agent deal with a $10MM+ annual value in an offseason since 2020. Their four such contracts this offseason are more than they’d dished out in the previous four winters combined.

It’s still not enough. They’ve ticked off shortstop and late-inning relief. Those were indeed key needs, but neither was as worrisome as the rotation. Injuries exposed Atlanta’s lack of starting pitching depth in 2025. They haven’t done anything to address that thus far, and they should be as motivated as any team in MLB to add a mid-rotation arm before Opening Day.

The Braves will enter the season with a rotation that’d line up as Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider, Hurston Waldrep and one of Reynaldo López or Grant Holmes. If they could push a “turn off injuries” button, they’d be in excellent shape. Every team wishes they could keep pitchers healthy, of course, but the Braves look particularly vulnerable. AJ Smith-Shawver underwent Tommy John surgery in June and isn’t coming back until the second half at the earliest. Their other six starters have limited track records or durability questions, and no one behind that group should be starting games at the MLB level.