The Atlanta Braves have gotten off to a decent start in 2026, going 6-5 and in fourth place in the NL East, and only a game behind the three-way tie that is first place. They’ve been heavily relying on their hitting, as their pitching suffered enormous losses to injury weeks before the season started.
Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer believes it’s time for the Braves to finally fix that, and predicts they will sign former All-Star ace Lucas Giolito. Giolito has been linked to the Braves this entire past offseason, and it seems like a match made in heaven, especially now.
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“Yet Lucas Giolito does have a history as an All-Star and Cy Young Award contender, and his hot finish to last year (2.51 ERA over 19 starts) didn’t come out of nowhere. He got more over-the-top with his arm angle, which improved the shapes of his pitches…Yeah, it’s the Braves again. And this pairing has been obvious for a while now. Assuming he doesn’t want to take a huge pay cut on the $19 million he made in 2025, the other factor here is that there are only so many teams that can afford Giolito even on a pro-rated deal. The Braves should be one of them,” Rymer wrote.
This past season, Giolito posted a 10-4 record, a 3.41 ERA, 121 Ks, and a WHIP of 1.290 over 145 innings pitched. He’d be Chris Sale’s No. 2 for the time being, and then could shift to the middle or end of the rotation as Atlanta’s injured starters come back.
As for a contract, if Giolito wants to be a contender, it does look like he’ll need to take a pay cut from his projected three-year, $61 million deal. Either a short-term deal with options, or a one-year rental is probably all Atlanta will offer him.
Hopefully, both sides come to an agreement, as Atlanta can only rely on their hitting for so long before cracks start to show.
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