Atlanta Braves Which Spencer Comes Back the Strongest

Atlanta Braves Which Spencer Comes Back the Strongest

Both Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwenbach feel like unknowns going into 2020 at six. Which one is more likely to bounce back this upcoming season? You are Locked on Braves, your daily Atlanta Braves podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hey, welcome back to Lockdown Brazon Sports Atlanta where we cover your favorite Atlanta sports teams each and every day. I’m your host Jake Mastriani. You can follow me on social media at shortstop ball. Been covering the Atlanta Braves in both written and podcast form for over 10 years now. And again, this is Locked On Braves, your daily connection to all things Locked on Braves, part of the number one sports podcast network out there. Of course, that is Locked Onodcast Network. On today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about the two Spencers in the rotation and which one is more likely to get back to themselves this season. Got a lot of questions to answer on today’s episode too that we didn’t get on last week’s mailbag episode that I’ll answer today and some news from around the league over the weekend. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. So I want to talk about Spencer Strider and Spencer Swellowbach in this first segment here coming from a question by SC Braves talk who says who do you trust more Schweli coming back off injury or Strider getting back closer to himself after having a full healthy off season? Good question here. And look, the the fact is I I I feel confident in both of them. I feel confident in Spencer Strider getting a full healthy off season, getting to see what he can do this past year and kind of play around with things a little bit. You give him a full healthy off season, I very much believe that Spencer Strider will come back and be a very good pitcher. Now, the question is, can he get closer back to who he was? I don’t think that can happen without the velocity getting back to where it was. And it’s not that not that he still doesn’t throw hard, but it is different when you’re throwing 98.99. When you’re sitting 97 and you can pump it up to 98.99 instead of sitting more 95 and pumping it up to 96 97. There is a a difference in those couple of miles per hour there that allows you to get away with more things over the middle of the plate. And that’s where Spencer Strider got absolutely destroyed this past year is he didn’t quite have the fast ball location and he was missing over the middle of the plate with 94 95 96 and that was getting destroyed. I know you don’t want to remember this, but go back to that series against the Phillies a couple of years ago where Strider was injured going into it in those first couple of innings when he was pumping in 97 98 and looked like Spencer Strider but because you know he was dealing with an injury hadn’t pitched in a while in that I believe it was a third or fourth inning they really had worked him and the pitch to Reese Rhys Hoskins was 94 right down the middle they got absolutely destroyed so it does make a difference in terms of what you can get away with and how dominant of a pitcher that Spencer Strider can be, but I’m completely confident that he can come back and still be a really good pitcher. But I don’t think he can come back and be what he was before without that velocity getting back to where it was before. As for Spencer Schwenbach, we were seeing the best version of him before the injury. We were seeing an an uptick in velocity. Now, that possibly led to the injury, the fractured elbow that he had. I went back and read the report on it. It was a a small fracture, but a fracture nonetheless in your elbow. And he is the one that alluded to this. There’s, you know, no confirmation, and not that you ever could get it, but he’s the one that alluded to the fact that it seems pretty obvious that it happened right after he saw an uptick in velocity and that maybe the elbow just wasn’t prepared to handle that. So, what is I think the question both these guys are unknown. Like I said in the in the cold open, both of these guys are unknown. The unknown for Spencer Strider is can he get back to being the guy he was before? Can he get that velocity back? And if not, can he figure it out by building out his his pitch mix and being able to just pitch a little bit more than he did before? I think the I think the question for Spencer Schwelmbbach is more just does he come back and try to push to that velocity that he had before the injury or does he just go back to where he was before which was still a really good pitcher even without the velocity. Now when the velocity bump came we started to see more strikeouts from Schwelenbach with which is not something that he has had to depend on and is not something that he has to have to be good and even be great. You know what’s made Spencer Strider so great is the strikeouts. You know, the 12k per nine being one of the best strikeout pitchers, you know, through so many ever innings. That’s what Spencer Strider, that’s what has made Spencer Strider great. And the question is, can he get back to that or does he need to mix it up and just be a little bit more of a pitcher and be able to throw a few more pitches? Can Spencer Swallen back can dial back the velocity and still be who he was, which was a really good pitcher. So, I’m more confident. I guess this is the way to ultimately answer this assuming assuming the big velocity doesn’t come back for either of these guys. Which one am I more confident in and still being a really good pitcher? I think it’s Ferrer Swelenbach. Although I am again, I’m very confident in both of these guys coming back and being really good. I want to make that I want to make that clear. But let’s say the velocity gains don’t come back for either guy. I’ve seen Spencer Swellowenbach do it without the velocity bump. So I feel more confident in him coming back than I do Spencer Strider right now. That ultimately answers your your question there with a long long- winded response. But thank you so much for that response. Next question here comes from uh Richard who put in a couple of questions here. The first one is with the adding of Martine Maldonado and Framber seemingly lingering on the market, could the Braves make a play? He’s been model of consistency the last four years, no less than 28 starts and his innings uh at around 100 or 176. There’s going to be another question about this too. In the free agent market at the top is is very much stalled, uncharacteristically stalled. Normally you see the guys at the top sign first and then it’s a trickle down effect. I think there’s a reason for that. I’m going to answer it in another question later, but there is a chance and I don’t know that I don’t think Maldonado to answer the question. I don’t think Maldonado has anything to do with Framber. Now, if it’s a side benefit, then sure, and it helps you out. I think if Famber you the market’s just not materializing for him the way he wants and he wanted to take a shorter term deal, then I think the Braves could get involved. But to answer the question, because like I said, I’ll get in the free agent market a little bit later on. I don’t think the Maldonado signing I don’t think they would do that just in hopes of signing Kramer. Again, if it if it helps, sure, that’d be great, but I don’t think that’s exactly why they did it. The other question here is about AA’s approach. He usually, this coming from Richard, said he usually gets out early, signs who he wants, but you see more and more players linger. Could we get better deals on better players if we the longer things go around, especially our reputation as a great place? If I’m a player, I’m now thinking a little less. I’d rather end up somewhere with Atlanta’s reputation. Um, and maybe this is the question that I was thinking of. I do think the market has had this slow approach, which I tend to think is we had questions all during the season. How is the upcoming CBA going to handle the offseason? I kept telling you, I don’t know. We won’t know until we see how it plays out. Well, I think we’re seeing how that’s playing out. And I think teams are a little less hesitant to give out these long-term contracts this off seasonason, not knowing what’s going to take place in the CBA if there is going to be some kind of cap and all of a sudden you have all these long-term contracts that’s going to hurt you against the cap and I don’t think there’s going to be a cap, but we don’t know. And I think owners are, you know, playing under that same assumption that even if there’s not a cap, there’s likely, I would imagine, going to be some sort of of rule change in the in how you spend. And it would not surprise me if we’re seeing these free agents at the top top of the market take longer to sign because owners are not wanting to give out these long-term contracts have a CBA that changes how you how you allocate money and how much money you can spend over years and then they have to completely, you know, change their game plan. Look, Kyle Tucker is going to get six, seven years. Bubba’s going to get, you know, five, six years. But do these guys have to pivot and maybe take a two or threeear deal because teams aren’t willing to give them that longterm deal not knowing what the CBA looks like? And if that happens, does that bring me that does that then bring a lot more players back into play for the Atlanta Braves? I think it’s certainly a possibility. Now, at this point, I think the Braves have pretty much done everything that they want to do outside of maybe a starting pitcher like Framber that again, if the market just isn’t there for him, maybe he has to take a shorter term deal and maybe the Braves get involved at that point. So, I do think the longer things go on, the more the bigger chance you have of one of these top free agents, you know, kind of sliding to the Braves a little bit. I know there’s another question about Rangers Suarez later on too, but I think a lot of these guys, if they wanted to take a a shorter term deal, the longer this this thing drags out, if teams are so unwilling to give out these long-term deals, not knowing the results of the CBA, look, these players have got to sign at some point. You can’t just wait until after next off season, but there is a chance that it makes them more more manageable for the Braves to take them on. All right, I got a lot more questions to get to on today’s episode. A lot of news to get to as well. We’ll jump back into it here next. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels a little bit different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. Recording this right now on a Sunday afternoon. So you can see these lines moving instantly here on FanDuel.com as the game unfolds. They just changed it here for the Buccaneers and the Panthers. The Panthers up 13-10 right now, but the Bucks still a point and a half favorite. They got Super Bowl odds out here. The Rams currently showing as the favorite or you looking towards Major League Baseball season, they got World Series odds out there. The Mets jumped back in front of the Braves at plus,400. I don’t I don’t think Luke Weaver was worth that, but Braves sitting there at plus,500. They started out the offseason at plus 2,000. They moved up a good bit. You can see all these odds here at FanDuel.com. The Hawks are 4 and a half point favorites against the Chicago Bulls. Again, all that right there at fanduel.com. Also, make sure you visit fanduel.com/playsafe for tools and resources help you stay in control of the way you play. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. Thank you for making lockdown on Braves your first listen of the day. And thank you for making a lockdown the number one sports podcast network. If you’re a true diehard Braves fan, the everydayer all access tier is built for you. You’ll get one-on-one text access with me and Lindsay, all access episodes with me and Lindsay, an exclusive newsletter, and a 15% discount to the Locked On merch store. Head to locked onraves.supcast.com to join the Everydayer program and unlock all access. You can also find the link in the show notes. Thank you so much for all those who have joined our everydayer program, whether the first tier or the second tier. I really appreciate all your support here on the podcast. Jumping right back into our questions though. Uh DJ DEJ says, “Is it a hot take to say that I think the hitting will outperform the pitching, specifically the starters? I think that the pitching staff is injuryp-prone and we might pay for it this year. Could we see more five and dives from starters because of the bullpen length?” Um I don’t personally don’t know that that bullpen bullpen length is there. It’s very good obviously at the back end now with Iggy and and Suarez and Lee and depending on if they were to move a Lopez or Holmes to the bullpen then it does get a little bit deeper but I to me the bullpen still isn’t all that deep. The six seven eight guys in that bullpen don’t give me a lot of confidence and most bullpens don’t to be fair. Is it a hot take though to say that the hitting will outperform the pitching? Look, you can’t never you can’t can’t predict injuries even though you know they’re going to come in the pitching staff. If I were to predict that everybody were to stay healthy on the hitting side and on the starting pitching side, I think one I think they would both be really really good. I think they’d both be top 10. But I think I’m still taking the pitching staff. If you’re giving me Chris Sale, you know, Spencer Schwenbach, Spencer Strider, Ronaldo Lopez, Hurston Waldrip, I still think I’m taking the pitching staff. But again, I think both, again, if healthy, are going to be really, really good. I think this team’s going to be really, really good. And health is going to be a factor. And yes, those guys are injuryprone. So have the players. Aussiey’s become injuryprone. Michael Harris always has something. Akuna’s had both knees, you know, surgically repaired. Austin’s ended the last two seasons injured. I mean, the Braves position players are very injuryprone at this point. So, I think you can make that case on both side of things. Um, but but I think it’s a good argument because because that’s how I that’s how good I think both sides could be. That’s how good I think the lineup can be. That’s how good I think the starting rotation can be. I still think if healthy, I mean, you’re talking about a Sai Young winner and Chris Sale. You’re talking about a guy who, you know, at least was a Sai Young favorite a couple years ago in Strider. I know he’s potentially a different guy now. Schwenbach that, you know, was in the Sai Young conversation going into last season as well. I still think the rotation has the ability to outperform the offense, but it’s a good that’s a a good honest debate and I wouldn’t be mad if you went either way on that. Allan says, “Will AA extend Ronald?” Not now. Um, that’s one that you could probably wait till after the C CBA the Braves can wait till after the CBA to see how things are going to play out and then hopefully extend Ron. I hope he does. If you’re just talking about this offseason, I don’t think it’s going to happen this off season. Man, Leo says, “What about this trade giving away Azie, Nacho, Elder, Camoniti, and Fuentes to get I believe you’re meaning to say Catel Marte.” I I don’t think that’s enough. I I just honestly do not think that’s enough. And it depends on what the Diamondbacks are doing. You know, if they’re not trying to compete, which they just, you know, they they’ve made some signings like they are going to compete. They’re kind of confusing this off seasonason. Then getting Aussie makes no sense. And then you’re looking at at a package of Nacho Elder and Camoniti and Fuentes. And you’re getting two, you know, good pitching prospects in Camoniti and Fuentes. I still don’t think that’s enough for Marte, who’s been one of the best hitters, not just best second baseman, but one of the best hitters in the league for the last couple of years now. Kathy G says, “Is there any real any talk? I guess let me go back. Sorry Kathy Mano to answer your question. For me, would I give away Aussie, Nacho, Elder, Keminiti, and Fuentes for Marte? Yes, I’d do that in a heartbeat because again, you’re getting one of the best hitters in all of baseball. So, I I would do that deal in a heartbeat. I don’t think the Diamondbacks do. All right. Kathy says, “Is there any talk in the next CBA of lifting the qualifying offer penalties for signing guys? The team losing a guy, I understand, but I can’t see how losing a draft pick and money for signing a qualifying offer guy benefits the players or owners. What am I missing? Thanks as always. So, I believe this almost got fixed in the last CBA, but the owners wanted they were going to do that if the players agreed to an international draft. I believe that’s what it was. Somebody fact checked me on that, but I believe that’s that was on the table the last CBA and almost got done. So, I would have to imagine it’s going to be on the docket for this upcoming CBA and it needs to get addressed. It is it is ridiculous. I’m fine with awarding the teams who are le losing those guys, but yeah, pen penalizing the team for signing those players and penalizing the players as well because as you said, it hurts both of them in free agency. It just doesn’t make sense. So, that like I said, almost got addressed last CBA. It it really needs to get addressed this with this next CBA. So, good question there. The next one from Jonathan Rogers who says, “Do you think that Michael Harris will hit higher than 249 this year or reach his career ops of 758 pulling for him?” But this is tough. Um, I think he’ll hit higher than 249. Even in his younger years, I know he’s only what, his age 25 season. In his earlier season, in his rookie season, his sophomore season, he still hit for a high average and he still had a lot of chase and swinging miss there. Now, perhaps pitchers finally caught up to that and that’s why you’ve seen him, you know, slide backwards, but I think he’ll hit higher than than 250 this season. I think he’ll get back to hitting, you know, 270ish. I, you know, ops 27. I think the ops will be more around 775, I think. So, higher than that. I’m hoping for big things for Michael Harris. They’ve already been talked about him working with Tim Hires this off season. The the only thing I don’t know is just can he get over that hurdle of pitch recognition. Talked about this a lot with with Jared Kelnik and the fact that when he makes contact, he makes really good contact, but he just can’t recognize pitches at all. And I don’t want to compare Michael Harris to Jared Kelnik because I know that’s going to scare a lot of people, but it it feels similar to Michael Harris when he makes contact. gets great contact, but he just can’t recognize pitches. And you know, that’s something I believe you can get better at, but how much better can you get at it? How quickly? Because that’s just a matter of seeing pitches. And they have machines now. You know, they can simulate that to a certain degree. They even, you know, have you can watch um, you know, screens of people doing that VR and stuff like that. You can you can see it, put certain pictures in it and see their motions and mechanics. So there’s ways that you can do that now to prepare for it and get better, but that is the hurdle. I mean, when he makes contact in the zone, it’s it’s great. It’s just he cannot recognize pitches and he is swinging it wildly at stuff way out of the zone. So until that gets fixed, it’s going to be there’s going to be a cat for who Michael Harris can be. But even with that, we’ve seen him hit for high average in the past. So I think he’ll get back to that this upcoming season. Uh Matt Olsson Burner says, “Who do you think the Braves add as a starter?” I want to look real quick at the list of uh free agents that are out there. The one I’ve been pushing for a lot is Chris Basset. I just think he makes a lot of sense for the Braves. And it depends on price. These prices for starting pitchers, both free agency and in trades. You saw the trade for Shane Bos over the weekend. I mean, my word, what a what a price that they had to pay for Shane Bos, who maybe I missed something. I don’t I don’t remember him being being, you know, one of the best pitchers in baseball, but that’s what that package made it seem like. I just I think the prices are very high. But if you can get Chris Basset for around 15 million, I think that makes a lot of sense for for what the Braves need. And getting somebody who can give you innings, has consistently given you innings and can can give you quality innings, too. I mean, you’re talking about RA under four, you know, 170 plus innings. That’s what Chris Batson can give you. And then plus what we saw in the postseason for him making the transition to the bullpen that he could do that away. I think he’s somebody that you could start in a postseason game and feel pretty good about it and you could move him to the rotation in a postseason and feel pretty good about it. What we’ve seen, I don’t think they’re going to get Framber. I don’t think they’re going to get Ranger. I don’t think they’re going to get, you know, Zack Gallon. I don’t think they’re going to get Shoda Imanaga, Zack Efflin, Chris Basset are probably the guys in that range that maybe you could get for 156 million a year that I think make some sense. I just prefer Basset. you know, others kind of below that. You know, of course, you have your Max Shers, your Justin Verlanders. If you want to take a shot on those guys, you could. I don’t I’m not necessarily all that high on it, but those are the only ones left really on the free agent market that I think you could get that are guys that if you needed them to start a post, obviously if everybody’s healthy, you’re starting, you know, Cell, Sch Swenbach, Strider, but if you needed to start Chris Basset or Zack Efflin in a postseason game, you could do that. Uh, so that’s where that’s where I think the Braves go because I just it feels like too you just get the sense that they’re trying to avoid giving up any prospects this off seasonason. I know we’ve heard very little, which we hear very little in general, but we’ve heard very little about the Braves being all that active in the trade market. And so it seems like if there’s money there to spend, and it makes sense. I talked about this on the last episode, just go spend the money. And so I I think that’s the direction they’ll go. and the names kind of in that middle tier because I don’t think they’ll sign anybody at the top, but that middle tier of a Basset or an Efflin is probably what they’ll be shooting for if I had to guess. All right, I got a couple more questions to get to and some news from the weekend. We’ll finish things off here next. 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I love I love having Suarez and Wentz for the depth and long men, but again, they pick those guys up off the scrap heap. There’s not going to be any problem putting either of them out there. Now, you could trade Elder if you wanted to. If you know, say you wanted there’s a pos a possibility out there to upgrade your bullpin depth that you could get a guy that maybe has the ability to pitch in a setup role and you got a team out there that was just desperate to have some starting pitching in the back end. I could see them doing that. I don’t think they’ll trade Holmes. I could see them trading Elder and if they needed to make room I think they could DFA Suarez w and those guys will get picked up but nobody’s going to lose too much sleep over it. Hassan Kim and Joyer says do you think the Braves should would go after a Ranger Suarez or Amber Valdez to add another lefty to the rotation or is that out of their price range? I think it’s out of their price range. I don’t necessarily pay too much attention to getting left right. I just get good starters. I don’t care if they’re lefties or righties. Um, unless I would say the only thing is unless you feel like one of those guys might move to the bullpen. So like if you were to get a lefty starter that maybe you felt like if your rotation stays healthy and you get to the postseason, you want to move him to the but even that’s just I don’t think that’s really in their mind what they they sign somebody like that. But I think Ranger and Amber are probably both out of their price range. They sign one of those two guys. We’ll have a we’ll have a party on here for a special episode. Adam says, “Does it concern you after back-to-back injury riddled seasons? We have made no changes to the medical staff. I know injuries are unpredictable, but it seems like we’ve had a key injury or injuries for six to seven years straight. What about the six to seven years before that though? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and the Braves have become known for guys that just post every day and maybe eventually that just caught up to some of these guys and and now we’re seeing the fallout from that. I don’t know. As I’ve said in the past, it’s hard to really say how much value there is in a guy playing 150 games instead of 160 games. Like, does it really help all that much for a guy to sit once or twice a month? Again, I don’t think that’s really something you can quantify. But the Braves were a team that was known for being one of the healthiest teams and having guys all over the field that played 162. And so maybe now that’s just kind of catching up with them. And how do we, you know, how do we not know that they have somewhat changed medical staff? That’s not necessarily something that they’re going to announce obviously, you know, the little NASA training staff and all that on on opening day and whatnot, but how do we know they haven’t already looked into some of that? Um, so again, injuries are unfortunate part of the game and you can’t really predict them. Grayson says, “Who is the DH on opening day?” Murf is hurt. I don’t think it’s Yaz. He feels like more of a bench platoon bat. I think we are still missing that outfield bat. I think either Michael Harris or ProAr will underperform or injure this year. Is Bucks still a possibility? He takes away that risk. No, I don’t think Buckton is a possibility anymore. I could see that one coming back around in in the season. Say the Twins aren’t in it and you do have an injury in the outfield. I think it’s going to be Derrick Profar. I think he’s going to be your DH on opening day and probably for a good chunk of time. Like I said, especially until Murphy comes back. I think, you know, Yas was that extra outfielder and I think we’re going to see Proof Far DH a lot. So, that’s the easy one for me. Apologize. I’m running out of time, so I have to make some of these quick. AIT 1018 says, “If we make a trade, which prospects you willing to trade?” I’m willing to trade any of our prospects. Look, there’s there’s some that I really like obviously and I want to keep, but in the right deal, I’m trading any prospect. There’s no there’s not an untouchable prospect in the system for me. So, I’m trading anybody in the right deal. I’m not, you know, giving players away, but to me, the Raiders don’t have that untouchable prospect right now. Matt Olsson Burner says, “Who feels the final bench spot?” I think it’s either Bruhan or it’s Willie Castro. I know they were kind of linked to Willie Castro early on. Now maybe that’s gone with them signing Hassan Kim, but I think Willie Castro would be an upgrade on the bench over Bruhan, but if not, I’m fine with Bruhan being that final bench spot is again that’s that’s the spot that’s just somebody gets hurt, let Bruhan finish out the game and then hopefully you have somebody else that you can you can get to fill in there long term. So I think it’s either Bruhan or Willie Castro. Chassity says, “What’s been your most favorite move made in the offseason so far, as well as your least favorite or most disapproving move so far? And do you think anything else big is in the works?” Depends on what you mean by big. I still believe that they could find a mid-rotation type of starter. Like for me, Chris Basset would be pretty pretty big. I hate to keep using that that name like it’s I think he’s the end all beall, but I I think they could still sign a starting pitcher for 15 16 million a year and that would be pretty big move. So, I I definitely think that there’s possibility for one more big move and the budget again, assuming that they’re going to go up to that third threshold, calls for it because there’s potentially 30 million left to to spend this off season. So, I do think there’s the potential for one more big move. My favorite move so far, probably the Robert Suarez move. Um, now you have to couple that I think with the Iggy move. Both of those, getting two closers for the back end of your bullpen to me is easily the best move of the off seasonason. My most disapproving move so far, I don’t have one. Like I liked all the moves that they’ve made. Yes, I wish you would have shot a little bit bigger instead of going for your Shrimsky, going for the Cody Bellinger. I would have loved to seen that happen, but I understand it. You know, working within the constraints that AA has, that probably makes more sense. So, I don’t have a move this off seasonason that I disapprove of necessarily. Aaron Abson says, “Who do you think will have more home runs next year? Ronald or Matt?” Good question. I’m gonna go with Ronald. Matt, what we saw last year, and some f some fans are going to hate this, some are going to love it. We saw more of a Freddy Freeman version of Matt Olsen last year. Now, not quite that 300 batting average type of of Freddy Freeman, but we saw a Matt Olsen who it feels like and seemed like dialed back the power a little bit in order to put the ball in play a little bit more. And we saw the power come down and we saw him, you know, obviously be patient as a lot of Braves hitters were last year with Tim Hires coming in. But I’m going to go with Ronald. I think Ronald will hit 35, 40 home runs. And I think Matt Olsen will probably sit in that 30 home run range like he has the last two years. Sam Bolan says, “I wasn’t old enough to know what was happening with the Danby trade from the Arizona from Arizona to Atlanta, but could you give us a short summary of that trade and talk about the likelihood of the Braves falling in love with one of the 2026 shorts stops and doing something similar?” Um, I mean, the only way the Braves were able to do that is because they were rebuilding. And so the only way that that would happen this upcoming year, so say I don’t I don’t know the draft order off the top of my head, but you know, say the the White Socks, you know, they pick take Rock Chilowski 1-1 because Danby was a one-1 pick and the Braves wanted to trade for him in the offseason. Only way they do that is if the Braves were Braves were tanking or the Braves were rebuilding and they traded somebody from their you traded Ronald. Like I mean that’s essentially what it was be. Now the the Braves didn’t give that up for Danby Swanson. They gave up Shelby Miller and uh Gabe Spear in that deal but Shelby Miller was coming off a really good season and the Diamondbacks got traded Swanson, Aaron Blair and Indian Ender and Ciarte. Now to be fair that at the time was seen as a pretty bad trade and it didn’t age well either. Although I know some people in here still hate Danby Swanson. I think I thought he was undervalued and then he became overvalued in his Braves tenure. But again, the only way that something like that happens is if the Braves are rebuilding and they were to trade Austin Riley, Matt Olsen, Ron Ronald Good Jr. like you’d have to trade somebody off your major league team in order to do a deal like that. And I just don’t see that happening for the Atlanta Braves. So unfortunately falling back to nines in the draft means they’re probably not going to get one of these top shorts stops in the upcoming draft. All right, real quickly. I’m going to get through the news over the weekend. Uh, Murakami signs with the White Socks for two years, 34 million. Michael King goes to the Padres’s for three years, 75 million. You had a three-way trade with the Pirates getting Brandon Low as the big major league piece in that, the Rays and Astros involved. The Orioles traded uh Slater Debron, Kaden Boddine, Michael Ferrett, Austin Over, and a comp a pick for Shane Boss. That was a trade that I referenced earlier. Seems like a massive overpay there. Uh, Guardian signed Sean Armstrong. The Philly signed Brad Keller. I know a lot of Braves fans wanted them to go out and get him for possibly the the rotation or the bullpen. Uh, but the Philly signed Keller for 2 years 22. The Mets signed Luke Weer for 2 years 22 million. And the Giants signed Adrien Houser for two years 22 million. So you’re seeing the prices on these pitchers. Even a guy like Adrien Hower who is almost definitely a four or five starter, he got 11 million a year. So the pricing for pitching this off price for pitching this off seasonason is very very high. All right, that will do for this episode of Locked on Braves. Make sure that you rate, review, and subscribe to the Lockdown Brace podcast wherever you get your podcast. and we will talk to you

Atlanta Braves face rotation uncertainty: Can Spencer Strider or Spencer Schwellenbach bounce back stronger in 2026? Jake Mastroianni weighs the odds, evaluating Strider’s need to recapture lost velocity versus Schwellenbach’s recovery from injury and altered pitch mix. With both Spencers’ futures in the balance, which arm will anchor Atlanta’s pitching staff this season?

Key Braves topics include possible roster moves for another starting pitcher like Chris Bassitt, the evolving free agent market, and ongoing concerns over player health and bullpen depth. Mailbag questions spark debates over Ronald Acuña Jr.’s extension, Michael Harris II’s offensive outlook, and the team’s injury track record. Stay ahead with analysis on Atlanta’s strategic decisions and latest MLB news, from Martin Maldonado’s influence to rising pitching costs.

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0:00 – Two Spencers: Bounce-Back Odds
11:48 – Braves Mailbag & Offseason Moves
22:34 – Rotation, Bench, and News Recap