{"id":659003,"date":"2026-04-02T15:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659003\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:21:21","slug":"braves-mightve-dodged-major-rotation-issues-after-strong-start-to-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659003\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves might’ve dodged major rotation issues after strong start to 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

There might not have been a bigger storyline across Major League Baseball in the lead-up to the 2026 season than the Atlanta Braves<\/a>‘ starting rotation.<\/p>\n

They were dealing with a litany of injuries to the group, with five starting pitchers beginning the season on the sideline for various amounts of time.<\/p>\n

However, as Mark Bowman of MLB.com<\/a> notes, through the first week of the year, they’ve actually managed to be okay. The Braves, somehow, might’ve dodged a major issue with their starting rotation.<\/p>\n

Braves might’ve dodged a major SP problem<\/p>\n

“Braves: rotation concerns have been quieted,” Bowman writes. “… Depth remains a concern, but so far, so good for a group that lost four pitchers to injuries during Spring Training.”<\/p>\n

The Braves’ rotation is off to a far-better start than most would’ve expected coming into the regular season with all of the injuries and question marks in the rotation.<\/p>\n

Chris Sale was the only non-issue, and he’s been great so far. Reynaldo Lopez went six innings, allowing just one run with a fastball that was back in the mid-90’s.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Braves predicted to trade Bryce Elder for Lars Nootbaar<\/a><\/p>\n

Grant Holmes’ three runs allowed in five innings weren’t ideal, but it’s not so bad that these rotation issues are a major problem.<\/p>\n

But, not only was Bryce Elder good, pitching six scoreless innings against the Athletics<\/a>‘ strong lineup, but Martin Perez even held the A’s scoreless in 4.1 innings of work.<\/p>\n

The only issue was Jose Suarez, who had allowed four runs in 3.2 innings of work. But, he’s not likely to be in the rotation long-term.<\/p>\n

Once Spencer Strider returns, and if one or multiple of Hurston Waldrep, Spencer Schwellenbach, and AJ Smith-Shayver return, the Braves’ rotation could be in a good spot that completely dispels any worries entering the season.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There might not have been a bigger storyline across Major League Baseball in the lead-up to the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-659003","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-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116335796982293042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659003","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=659003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}