The Braves’ biggest letdown this season has come from the place they needed help most: the young starting pitching.
That group entered the year with real buzz. Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, AJ Smith-Shawver, JR Ritchie and Owen Murphy were all viewed as possible rotation pieces, and Schwellenbach was expected to open Spring Training as the No. 2 starter.
Waldrep had also flashed real promise late last season. Instead, both were hurt about a month before Opening Day and combined for just three appearances.
Smith-Shawver has at least made it back after Tommy John surgery, returning in August. But his work since then has been uneven, which is no surprise for a pitcher who spent 14 months away from game action. The upside is still there, but for this season, he does not look like someone the Braves will lean on in October’s biggest spots, even if he remains in the playoff-roster conversation.
Ritchie and Murphy are in a different spot. Both look like arms that are still a year away.
Ritchie got the ball against the Cubs last night in his first major-league appearance since August 2nd, and Chicago knocked him around for six earned runs in 4.2 innings. He may get one more chance before the season ends, since he can no longer be optioned without clearing waivers, but the Braves have already seen enough to know he is not quite ready for this stage.
The one young pitcher who has truly delivered is Didier Fuentes. He has emerged as one of the best setup men in baseball, and there is nothing to knock about the rookie season he has put together.
He will be a key piece next month, though it is fair to wonder what he might have offered if Atlanta had stretched him out as a starter. With the way Chris Sale, Didier Fuentes and Tyler Mahle have been pitching lately, that trio would not sound bad at all.
That makes the broader disappointment sting even more. Over the last five or six seasons, few teams have done a better job developing starting pitching than the Braves.
Every year, it seems, at least one young arm shows frontline potential. The problem has been keeping those pitchers healthy.
Fuentes is not a consolation prize. He might end up being the best of the group. But after Atlanta passed on adding a single starting pitcher in free agency, the club had every reason to expect much more from its own pipeline.
Instead, it got almost nothing. And now the Braves head toward October with a lot more questions than answers.
In Other News...
Braves Have A Fast-Rising Prospect Fans Need To Start Watching
Canadian baseball has produced plenty of big-league names over the years, from Hall of Famers like Fergie Jenkins and Larry Walker to current stars such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and the next wave is starting to take shape. In the latest look at the best prospects from north of the border, the attention lands on Eric Hartman, whose breakout 2026 minor league season has pushed him to the top of the list and given evaluators a new name to track closely.
For Braves fans, Hartman is the kind of prospect worth filing away now rather than later. The ranking puts him ahead of a broader group of top 10 Canadian hopefuls spread across the majors farm systems, and that kind of placement usually signals both performance and projection are starting to line up. The only question now is how quickly the rest of the industry starts treating him like more than a fast-rising name on a prospect list. [Read more 🡒]
Austin Riley Is Representing The Braves For Something Bigger Than Baseball
Austin Riley is being recognized for more than what he does at third base. The Braves named him their 2026 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, an honor that goes to players whose impact reaches well beyond the field and into the community. Riley has built a steady reputation for that kind of work in Atlanta, especially through Operation Home Team, the clubs program that honors military veterans during home games.
Riley and his wife have also been active in supporting military families and veterans through a range of initiatives, including a Military Appreciation lunch and a charity golf tournament that benefited veterans. For a Braves team that has watched Riley grow into a central figure on the roster, the nomination is another reminder that his presence in the organization extends far past game night. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Bullpen Just Got A Joe Jimnez Twist Fans Did Not Expect
Joe Jimnezs path back to a major league mound has taken another step, and it is the kind the Braves have been waiting on for a long time. After dealing with cartilage damage and then going through three knee surgeries, the reliever has not pitched in nearly two years, leaving his status one of the more difficult injury stories on the roster to track.
Now, Atlanta has sent him out on a rehab assignment with the Stripers, which at least puts a return back into the conversation. Given how complicated the recovery has been and how unusual his timeline looks compared with other pitchers who have dealt with similar knee issues, any late-2026 comeback would be the kind of development that still feels very much in progress. [Read more 🡒]