With the end of the Atlanta Braves' season comes the exit interviews with various players, coaches, and executives. For the most part, the Braves' exit interviews offered a few sound bites about how painful it was to get eliminated early again, with several players trying to take at least some of the blame. That's all standard, but Braves front office head Alex Anthopoulos shared a few more interesting things about the Braves' plans heading into the offseason.
Anthopoulos' end-of-season media availability covered a wide range of topics, from Jurickson Profar to trying to keep Tyler Mahle to the status of the Braves' current coaching staff. However, one area that got plenty of discussion was the team's rotation arms who are still under contract, and what roles they could serve in the future.
In his response to questions about the Braves’ starting pitching staff, Anthopoulos not only revealed that the team will explore Didier Fuentes as a rotation option, but he also revealed that neither Spencer Strider nor Spencer Schwellenbach should be considered locks to return to the rotation once they recover from their injuries.
Highlights from this morning's media session with Alex Anthopoulos:
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) October 11, 2026
1) Strider and Schwellenbach may return next year, but neither can be counted on to be a regular rotation member over 162 games
2) Like this year, Fuentes will come to camp as a starter. His role will be…
Alex Anthopoulos just revealed that none of Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Didier Fuentes are locks to be in the Braves' rotation
We'll start with the good news, because that is more fun. Anthopoulos was surprisingly candid when discussing the team's plans for Fuentes. The current plan is to stretch Fuentes back out as a starter ahead of the 2027 season, and then to see what happens. However, Anthopoulos also explained that because Fuentes had limited innings this season as a reliever, asking him to go straight from the bullpen to a starter’s workload may be too big of a jump for the young righty to take.
His Fuentes answer was particularly important when digested next to Anthopoulos' comments on Strider and Schwellenbach. He immediately tried to downplay the idea that either pitcher would be able to give the Braves a full season of starts in 2027. In fact, it sounds very likely that both pitchers may not be ready at the start of next season, and may be in the bullpen (at least at first) upon their return.
In short, the Braves' rotation plans for 2027 are even more in flux than we thought. Fuentes being considered for a rotation spot is very fun, but Atlanta does seem very open to the idea that he may just be better as a reliever. Between that possibility and the updates on Schwellenbach and Strider, we aren't any closer to knowing who exactly is going to be starting games for the Braves next season.
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