The Atlanta Braves just keep humming along. The offense feels much more well-rounded at the start of this season, and the pitching staff, despite all of the early injuries, has exceeded every expectation for the most part. Given how poorly the Braves played at the start of 2025, this has been a breath of fresh air.
However, that doesn't mean there have not been some twists and turns along the way through this portion of the Braves' schedule. Here are the latest goings on with the Braves and what comes next.
Braves News: Spencer Strider to begin rehab assignment (probably at Rome) Thursday
It was already known that Sean Murphy was progressing in his rehab as expected this week. The Braves even went as far as to provide a partial schedule for Murphy's playing time as the team tries to build him back up so that he can catch for nine innings without issue. Murphy will be taking those rehab steps in Rome, and it sounds like Spencer Strider will join him there.
Strider has been rehabbing an oblique injury that popped up late in spring training. Most estimates had him returning pretty quickly, as the injury was considered mild. That seems to align with the latest update that Strider will start his rehab assignment on Thursday, with Rome being the most logical option, as they are actually in town this week.
Braves News: Atlanta's pitching staff falters in tough loss to Marlins
The Braves' pitchers have been the real heroes through the early portion of the team's schedule this year. The offense has done its job, but the reason why Atlanta has one of the best records in baseball to start the season is due to their arms really stepping up. In a lot of ways, they were due for a bit of a hiccup.
That hiccup came against the Marlins on Monday as the Braves fell by the score of 10-4. The lineup did enough to win, but Grant Holmes got a quick hook (more on that in a sec), Aaron Bummer imploded in relief, and the game got out of hand in a hurry. Also, if Mike Yastrzemski could start hitting again like he was in camp, that would be super duper.
Braves News: Grant Holmes' being pulled early caused momentary panic, but he is fine
The last thing the Braves need right now is another injured starter. They are about to get Strider back, but they will be without Hurston Waldrep and Spencer Schwellenbach for a while in addition to longer-term absences like AJ Smith-Shawver. So, when Walt Weiss pulled Holmes out at four innings and just 59 pitches, it was concerning.
Thankfully, it sounds like Holmes just had an off night. According to Weiss, he went into the game last night knowing he wanted to have Holmes on a short leash because of how deep into the game he had played against the Angels the previous week. When things started to go sideways early, Weiss just went ahead and yanked him. By all accounts, Holmes is healthy...he just got beat last night, and Weiss wanted to be cautious with him.
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