It was a long road back for Atlanta Braves right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver. He had started to figure some things out over the first month of the 2025 season, but an elbow injury ruined that. Smith-Shawver ended up having Tommy John surgery in June 2025 to repair his UCL. He was in great hands with Dr. Keith Meister performing the procedure.
It took some time to get himself ready for big-league action again, but almost a full year later he began that journey. The talented righty made his first MLB start at the end of July. It was a spot start against the Mets, and considering how long he was out, it went fairly well.
Smith-Shawver was sent back down to the minors after that start, but it wasn't long before he returned. The problem is that he hasn't been very good in his three starts since then. He has a 7.13 ERA, 20 hits, 11 walks, and 15 strikeouts over 17.2 innings pitched. That's not what Atlanta hoped to see from their young right-hander. But it's to be expected as he works his way back from a major surgery.
Smith-Shawver has averaged three walks per start and allowed three or more runs in each. A big part of that is his inability to induce swing-and-miss. He added a sinker this year, but it hasn't fooled anyone.
AJ Smith-Shawver is an addition to his arsenal that the Braves may want to abandon
Opposing hitters are batting .750 against the pitch so far, with a 1.250 slugging percentage. He's only thrown it 24 times this season. He's mostly used his four-seam fastball and splitter this season. Besides the sinker, he also sparingly uses a slider and a curveball. Those pitches have also been thrown 24 times this season. The curve has been okay, but his slider has been absolutely destroyed.
Teams are batting .600 against it, including a 1.200 slugging percentage. AJSS has a 14% whiff rate for this pitch, which is not good enough at all. Especially not when you're primarily utilizing a two-pitch mix.
The Braves really need Smith-Shawver to work on fixing this, or he won't stay in the rotation for much longer. Especially not in the playoffs. He just needs to make some adjustments to his sinker and slider. If he's able to get hitters to whiff on these a bit more, it will vastly improve his chances of success.
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