If you watched the Atlanta Braves regularly in 2025, it probably felt like you were watching a new pitcher everyday. After all, the club set an MLB record for most players used in a season with 71, thanks largely to the club shuffling through 44 pitchers.
It's unsurprising then, especially in today's baseball, that a good portion of those pitchers have had Tommy John surgery at some point in their career. It's equally unsurprising, considering how many pitchers the Braves used, that they'd be near the top of the league in terms of pitchers with Tommy John used.
On Friday, Twitter user MLBPlayerAnalys, who has a public spreadsheet tracking all players with Tommy John Surgery, shared the 2025 final reporting for each team.
Summary of Tommy John surgeries for MLB pitchers used by team in 2025. New record of 21 in one season by DET and LAD, which doesn't even include their pitchers who were injured all season.
— Jon Roegele (@MLBPlayerAnalys) January 2, 2026
39.1% of all MLB pitchers have had Tommy John surgery. pic.twitter.com/fwI03aGj5H
Exactly which Braves pitchers with Tommy John surgeries played in 2025
Although the Braves were not leading the league in pitchers used who have had Tommy John Surgery at some point in their career, the Braves still used 17 pitchers, tying them for fourth-most with the Boston Red Sox. However, because the Braves used so many pitchers this season, T.J. pitchers accounted for 38.6% of their pitchers used, which was just a tick above the league-wide 37.7% usage.
Several of these pitchers only made a small cameo with the Braves, including Charlie Morton, Alexis Diaz, Kevin Herget, and Cal Quantrill. Several others, like Rafael Montero and Erick Fedde, didn't see the end of the season with the club.
Unsurprisingly, with so many of these pitchers being used because of other injuries, 10 of these 17 pitchers are no longer with the Braves as of the New Year. Currently, Aaron Bummer, Spencer Strider, Joey Wentz, Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Daysbel Hernandez, and AJ Smith-Shawver are still in the Braves organization, of the 2025 members who had had the UCL repair surgery.
More promising, however, is that AJ Smith-Shawver was the only Brave requiring the surgery in 2025, meaning the other six pitchers should have no concerns going into spring training, at least regarding their elbows.
Two of the Braves offseason additions, Robert Suarez and Danny Young, have had Tommy John in the past, with Young undergoing the operation in May of 2025. This brings the total number of Braves pitchers who have previously had the elbow surgery at this moment to nine. In 2025, only nine MLB teams used nine or fewer pitchers with T.J. throughout the course of the season.
While Tommy John Surgery is not indicative of pitcher success, it's always something to keep an eye on, especially considering the success rate the second time around is much lower for pitchers than the first time.