Coming into the season, the Braves had a position battle set for the final spot in the rotation. Spencer Strider, Max Fried, Chris Sale, and Charlie Morton rounded out the top four with Reynaldo Lopez, AJ Smith-Shawver, Hurston Waldrep, and Bryce Elder fighting it out for the fifth spot.
Things look much different today. Strider went down with a season-ending injury, and Lopez proved he’s more than just a fifth starter, earning a bid to the All-Star game. Atlanta’s fifth starter at this point wasn’t even on our radar to begin the year.
Spencer Schwellenbach was thrust into a major league role, in part, due to injuries. He skipped Triple-A entirely and looks like he could develop into a frontline starter, featuring a wide array of offerings and poise.
For a guy with only seven starts in the big leagues and a 5.02 ERA, you might be asking why are some Braves fans so high on Schwellenbach? Well for one, his 3.57 FIP suggests positive regression is coming. Moreover, he’s in the 99th percentile for Chase Rate, 94th percentile for Barrel %, 83rd percentile for Average Exit Velocity, and 82nd percentile for BB%.
“This is probably one of my favorite picks, I could say, of my career,” former Braves Director of Scouting Dana Brown said of Schwellenbach. “I was so excited to get this guy.”
Without any Triple-A starts and barely over 100 innings pitched in the minors, the Braves rookie is beating the odds. His stuff plays, the arsenal is vast, but it’s the intangibles that are the most exciting, and it’s a veteran on the team that’s been helping him. Schwellenbach told A.J. Pierzynski on Foul Territory that Chris Sale has been invaluable to him in his transition to the majors.
.@spencerschwell shares how Chris Sale gives him pitching advice and stops him from being too hard on himself.
.@BravesOnBally pic.twitter.com/wYR0Mebfnz
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) July 11, 2024
For a young pitcher, this Braves staff must be a godsend. Chris Sale and Charlie Morton are two of the most experienced pitchers in baseball right now, and the former is one of the most accomplished in the history of the sport.
They’ve forgotten more than some of these youngsters have learned to this point in their careers. Oh yeah, then there’s 30-year-old Max Fried, who owns a career ERA just north of 3.00 across eight seasons in the bigs.
The Braves have a wealth of knowledge amongst their pitching staff, and the younger guys like Spencer Schwellenbach would be wise to soak up as much as they possibly can.
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Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire
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