In 2025, Bryce Elder led the Braves’ pitchers in innings pitched. By a lot, as it turned out. It was by 30 innings and 2 outs. That’s the kind of carnage that the starting pitching rotation was subjected to during last season. It might take something like that for him to repeat that. I mean, I love our seam-shifted-wake-having, chunky Woody Harrelson, and the Braves clearly do too. But it wouldn’t work out well if he did repeat.
There’s Chris Sale, who should be healthy going into this season. Spencer Strider is in that mix. Spencer Schwellenbach, Reynaldo Lopez, and Grant Holmes are returning from injury at some point. And Hurston Waldrep had a great 2025 as well.
So who will lead Braves’ pitchers in innings pitched? I would lean toward Chris Sale or Hurston Waldrep. It also would be fun if Joey Wentz grabbed hold of his fastball again and blew up. Or maybe it’s someone that’s not on the roster right now.
