There are certain ballclubs that fans just believe will eventually figure things out and find a way into the playoffs. The Atlanta Braves have comfortably occupied a seat in that exclusive club for the last few years. Their impressive depth and unwavering tenacity was on display in 2024, as they overcame prolonged batting slumps and major injuries to star players to sneak into October in the final game of the regular season. Intangibles only go so far, though.
The Braves’ early struggles were supposed to be a thing of the past after they attained a winning record in May, but they have seemingly hit rock bottom after losing seven straight and falling 10 games below .500. They need a spark or some form of reinforcements quick, otherwise the MLB playoffs will proceed without them for the first time since 2017. Unfortunately, AJ Smith-Shawver will not be the one to provide it.
The young right-handed starting pitcher officially underwent Tommy John surgery to repair the torn UCL he suffered at the end of last month. He begins a long, potentially windy road back to an MLB mound, following a nine-start sample size that consisted of a respectable 3.86 ERA and 42 strikeouts.
Will things get better for Braves?
Given that an inconsistent bullpen shares much of the blame for the team’s abysmal 9-19 record in one-run games, losing a key rotation guy like Smith-Shawver could cause a terrible ripple effect. The impact of his absence is arguably already being felt. Manager Brian Snitker does not want to place too much stress on his streaky relievers, but limited starter options may leave him with little choice.
Of course, one cannot just gloss over the lineup’s deficiencies. Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II are both batting below .240 and slugging less than .350. Such production is simply unacceptable when talking about players of their caliber. Atlanta has no room for error right now, sitting 14 games behind the first-place New York Mets in the National League East.
AJ Smith-Shawver surely feels helpless being forced to watch the remainder of the season from afar. Hopefully, the 22-year-old is at least feeling optimistic ahead of a challenging yet oftentimes effective recovery process.
Meanwhile, the Braves (27-37) are enduring their own taxing journey. They will try to pick themselves up versus the home-team Milwaukee Brewers (35-31) on Monday night.
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