{"id":568880,"date":"2026-02-12T21:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T21:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:40:24","slug":"how-far-will-the-braves-go-when-it-comes-to-fortifying-the-starting-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568880\/","title":{"rendered":"How far will the Braves go when it comes to fortifying the starting rotation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The good news for the Atlanta Braves as we continue to progress through the early portions of spring training is that two days of camp have come and gone and the Braves haven\u2019t had anybody else go on the 60-Day IL. Here\u2019s hoping that this continues long into spring training, the World Baseball Classic and the regular season as well, since the last thing this ballclub needs is a repeat of the injury struggles that this team has gone through for the past couple of seasons now.<\/p>\n

That is especially true for the starting rotation, which suffered some astonishing bad luck during last year\u2019s regular season campaign. There\u2019s already been a bad omen of that bad luck lingering into this season after we got wind of the news earlier this week that Spencer Schwellenbach will be starting the season on the 60-Day IL. A fully-healthy rotation would\u2019ve gone a long way towards bringing the Braves back into relevancy as far as the Postseason is concerned and already they could be missing Schwellenbach for who-knows-how-long.<\/a><\/p>\n

As such, the need for some more starting pitching has come under the magnifying glass once again. Earlier this week, Sam Peebles talked about some outside-of-the-box trade options<\/a> that the Braves could pursue when it comes to fortifying their rotation. That\u2019s certainly a route the Braves could go down, especially considering that there\u2019s a bit of a murky idea as to just how much the Braves are going to be willing to spend as the season gets closer and closer.<\/p>\n

As of right now (according to FanGraphs<\/a>), the Braves are currently committed to paying $264 million towards their payroll in 2026, which would be good for a Top 10 payroll in all of baseball and sixth place, to be exact. Atlanta was pushing for a Top Five payroll and as of right now, they\u2019re going to come up short as they trail the Blue Jays and Phillies, who are spending $281 million and $284 million, respectively.<\/p>\n

While we know that they\u2019re not going to go into Dodgers\/Mets territory any time soon (the Yankees, Mets and Dodgers are the only teams currently spending over $300 million, with the Dodgers being closer to $400 million. Phew.), there is a question as to how much the Braves are going to spend over what they\u2019re already planning on spending right now. MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal recently went on Foul Territory TV<\/a> to discuss the situation for the Braves from a financial standpoint and he didn\u2019t seem to indicate that the Braves were going to be super aggressive in adding to their rotation going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it changes anything for them financially,\u201d said Rosenthal when he was asked about the Braves potentially hitting up the free agent market for a starter. \u201cThey were going to spend what they were going to spend, and the guys out there right now were only going to get a certain amount.\u201d He did mention that one of the options for Atlanta was Zac Gallen but he also made sure to mention that the fact that Gallen comes alongside the potential penalty of the Qualifying Offer as a potential stumbling block to the Braves going after him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that is a little bit different with them, and they\u2019ve been unwilling to deal with this due to the qualifying offer situation, is the loss of a draft pick,\u201d stated Rosenthal. \u201dThe pick they would lose is No. 26 overall, that\u2019s kind of a high pick to lose, and they\u2019ve been reluctant to do that. They would do it for the right pitcher. I don\u2019t know if Zac Gallen on a short-term deal is that pitcher and I still expect him to go back to Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PHOENIX,<\/a><\/p>\n

PHOENIX, ARIZONA – SEPTEMBER 20: Zac Gallen #23 of the Arizona Diamondbacks delivers a pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies at Chase Field on September 20, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lucas Giolito is also still out there and he was previously linked to the Braves along with Chris Bassitt \u2014 though Bassitt is now off of the table after the Orioles snapped him up on a pretty reasonable deal. Whether the Braves decide to pursue Giolito, they actually decide to say [bleep] that pick and go for Gallen or if they potentially trade for a. hurler, the point is that Atlanta\u2019s going to need to take some action here.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not trying to pick on Bryce Elder here but again, things will probably not be going well around here if Elder is among the team leaders in innings pitched. Of course, things could go well for the Braves from a health standpoint but that\u2019s a pretty big \u201cif\u201d for this ballclub right now. Chris Sale has always been an injury risk, Spencer Strider is still trying to figure things out after coming back his most recent elbow surgery, Reynaldo L\u00f3pez certainly has questions about his durability and all we can do is hope that Grant Holmes will remain steady as he returns from elbow issues of his own \u2014 and it\u2019s not even a guarantee that Holmes will be a starter going forward.<\/p>\n

The starting rotation sure could do with some fortification and maybe we\u2019ll have to see the Braves either dip into the free agency market or swing a trade somehow. Either way, the Schwellenbach injury could serve as a wake-up call to make sure that the front office knows that the job\u2019s not done yet when it comes to making sure this team will be solid going forward.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure they\u2019re working hard and keeping their eyes peeled for anything that may materialize (and this front office with Alex Anthopoulos at the top still deserves the benefit of the doubt based on past achievements and transactions) but time\u2019s of the essence. Let\u2019s hope that this rotation gets fortified soon and in a way that\u2019s conducive to the club\u2019s success going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The good news for the Atlanta Braves as we continue to progress through the early portions of spring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,73272,4206,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-568880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlanta-braves-analysis","11":"tag-atlanta-braves-news","12":"tag-atlantabraves","13":"tag-baseball","14":"tag-braves","15":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116059836703598261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}