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<\/p>\nBaseball is often referred to as a game of failure. Perhaps nowhere is that statement more on display than in the life of a major league pitcher, whose fate hangs on every pitch.<\/p>\n
Pitch by pitch, batter by batter, inning by inning, game by game \u2014 a pitcher benefits from preparation, execution and the ability to wipe the slate clean when results stray from intended or expected outcomes.<\/p>\n
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It requires perseverance. That is something Bryce Elder personifies.<\/p>\n
From All-Star to also-ran and seemingly back again, Elder\u2019s time with the Atlanta Braves has been a roller coaster. But the right-hander\u2019s unflappable demeanor helped him weather the storm and make adjustments that are paying off at the best possible time for his team.<\/p>\n
Over the first five weeks of the season, all Elder is doing is running with the opportunity to start every fifth day, compiling a 1.88 ERA that ranks second in the National League heading into the weekend.<\/p>\n
After two seasons of bouncing between Atlanta and Triple-A Gwinnett, Elder emerged from his prolonged struggles as a better version of himself. This is the kind of thing that can only be found by going directly into and through the storm.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSomething that I\u2019ve always understood is being healthy, you\u2019re going to get the chance,\u201d Elder said. \u201cIf you\u2019re good enough and healthy, you\u2019re going to get the chance. I try to handle my business correctly to keep me out there. It\u2019s a weird game, the more time you spend out there. It\u2019s not always going to go well, but the more things you learn as long as you\u2019re paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Elder entered his fifth major league season with a somewhat tenuous hold on a spot in the rotation, once again underscoring that the best ability may very well be availability. Last year, he led the Atlanta staff with 28 starts and 156 1\/3 innings, but 2026 marked the first time Elder cracked the Braves\u2019 opening day roster.<\/p>\n
Strong pitching is a major factor in Atlanta\u2019s early season success. Considering the injury news that filtered out of Spring Training almost immediately, it may qualify as the most surprising aspect of the Braves\u2019 incredible 23-10 start.<\/p>\n
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Elder is a key performer on a surprisingly productive Atlanta pitching staff that owns a 3.17 ERA, the second best mark in Major League Baseball behind the New York Yankees<\/a>\u2019 3.05 ERA.<\/p>\n While you might expect to see Chris Sale<\/a> fronting the rotation and posting his requisite numbers, Elder\u2019s inclusion in the starting five came only after Spencer Strider<\/a>, Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a> and Hurston Waldrep<\/a> all began the season on the injured list.<\/p>\n Despite those circumstances, Elder and the Braves both believed the righty tapped into something down the stretch last year. After pitching to a 6.11 ERA in his first 21 starts and 111 2\/3 innings, Elder finished with a 2.82 ERA over his final seven starts and 44 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n Rather than trying to avoid bats and live almost exclusively in the margins of the strike zone, Elder started approaching his opponents much more directly. As a result, he cut down his walk rate while seeing his strikeout rate rise across those seven outings.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Attacking hitters helped Elder find the kind of consistency he\u2019s been searching for since the first half of his career-best 2023 season.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something I learned last year,\u201d Elder said. \u201cThe good run I went on last year literally started with me saying, \u2018If I give up five or six runs, that\u2019s fine, but I\u2019m going to progress the game. The game is going to move forward. I\u2019m not going to get in bad counts and situations.\u2019 And, obviously, it\u2019s still going to happen, but progressing the game forward and keeping it moving, it\u2019s turned out that I realize maybe my stuff is a little better than I thought it was. So, I\u2019m kind of staying in the zone and making hitters swing.\u201d<\/p>\n Something else Elder is benefiting from is the fact that not all swings are created equal. <\/p>\n He has been proficient at avoiding barrels. According to MLB Statcast data, Elder is in the 86th percentile with just a 3.3 percent opponent\u2019s barrel rate. That elite level of barrel suppression correlates directly to Elder\u2019s career-best home run rate of 0.4 per nine innings. Keeping the ball in the park always bodes well for a pitcher\u2019s chances on any given day.<\/p>\n Elder\u2019s overall success owes largely to an improved arsenal that includes a mix of three fastball types in addition to his slider and changeup. Having more weapons and a purpose for each pitch has Elder feeling like a new man on the mound compared to the one who was searching for answers over the past three seasons.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Perhaps his best weapon is the slider, a pitch he throws roughly a third of the time and has limited opposing hitters to just a .183 average and only one home run thus far this year. That\u2019s a marked improvement over the .259 average and 8 home runs allowed on the pitch in 28 starts a year ago.<\/p>\n Braves manager Walt Weiss believes that is a weapon that looks better than ever this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s all of his pitches and the secondary stuff is better,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cHis slider is an underrated pitch. If you go back to 2023, when he made the All-Star team, you would see a lot of hitters swing at bounced sliders. I think he\u2019s got that slider back again. He\u2019s getting a lot of swing and miss on it. He\u2019s getting some takes on it (because) they just don\u2019t see it very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with refining the slider, Elder reintroduced a cutter to go along with his sinker and four-seamer. That trio of fastball offerings can be utilized to do different things to different hitters in different counts, to say nothing of the occasional changeup Elder can keep in his back pocket.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n It all adds up to the most complete version of Elder that the Braves have ever seen.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got the cutter to add to the arsenal,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cHe had it once upon a time and he brought it back. It\u2019s a good pitch for him (and) complements the changeup really well. His changeup has gotten better. All of his stuff has ticked up \u2013 the two-seam, the four-seam. So, he\u2019s got three different fastballs \u2013 the two-seam, the four-seam and the cutter \u2013 and it makes it difficult on a hitter when you\u2019ve got three different fastballs and the other stuff is working, too. He\u2019s throwing the ball really well.<\/p>\n Elder\u2019s stuff has definitely ticked up on the radar gun. The four-seam fastball that average 90-91 mph over his first three seasons is clocked up to 94 mph this year and average 92.5 mph.<\/p>\n In addition to tapping into a little more velocity, Elder added the cut-fastball to his repertoire, primarily as a weapon against left-handed hitters.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, the four-seam had a lot of good action to it and I was getting good results with it,\u201d Elder said. \u201cI still plan on using that, but I think the cutter just kind of creates another plane. Everything is usually up and down for me, being a higher arm-slot guy. So, (it\u2019s) a little different plane moving into the lefties\u2026 I\u2019ve been working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n While he may eventually show it to right-handed hitters, Elder is using the pitch with great results against lefties. They are batting just .176 and slugging just .294 against the changeup in 76 offerings.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4311522efeffa01dd0f9a460e8fb9c35.jpeg\"\/)
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