Anthopoulos: 'On paper, right now we're in pretty good shape' with rotation

The Atlanta Braves have a lot more confidence now than they did back in October about their starting pitcher options.

As is customary, the Atlanta Braves scheduled a media availability on Sunday night with President of Baseball Operations Alex Anthopoulos ahead of the start of the 2026 Winter Meetings.

While there has not been a lot of talent acquisition to break down, plenty has happened for the Atlanta Braves. Anthopoulos spoke at length about the current state of the rotation and how in his mind, it is a lot more stable than back in October.

Let’s talk about it.

Positive health reports make the outlook more promising

When we spoke to Anthopoulos back in October, he characterized the team’s desire for a starting pitcher as being a “front burner” need.

Two months later, things are a bit…different.

There are a few things that stand out there. Let’s take them one at a time.

“Grant is totally healthy“

This is a reference to Grant Holmes, who is attempting non-surgical rehab from a minor UCL tear that he suffered over the summer. Expectations were low from the team’s side, with Anthopoulos clarifying with Holmes how he planned to present the situation over the winter.  “I told him, ‘Look, I’m gonna get asked about you during the off-season,’ - I didn’t want him to read about it and not hear for me - ‘I’m gonna say, look, I’m not counting on you in any form. You know, you’re out of options. We’ll kind of plug you in as the last guy outta the pen and see how it goes.’ ”

Anthopoulos mentioned that the two had spoken in the previous week, and just like all the rest of the updates on Holmes’ elbow that Anthopoulos has gotten this winter, this one was positive as well.

“ I just kept saying, ‘Look, I keep getting these unbelievable reports. I wanna hear from you.’ He’s like, ‘look, my stuff’s better now than when I was totally healthy’, like I said. ‘So this is totally normal off-season for you, no changes?” He said, ‘Yes’. […]  Right now. I mean, it really looks as though he’s going to be fine. I mean, there’s really - he’s done a ton. He’s thrown. It’s a normal off-season for him.”

Clean bills of health on the rest

Anthopoulos has similar glowing health info to share on Reynaldo López, who made just one start in 2025 before having arthroscopic shoulder surgery that ended his season, and Spencer Schwellenbach, who broke his elbow and missed the rest of the season.

“Everyone’s doing well and we have guys coming to the ballpark day in and day out and playing catch and throwing and so on.” Anthopoulos said that López was in the same “normal offseason” camp as Holmes, while adding that he saw Schwellenbach just recently and got a positive report. “ He’s continuing to build up, but he’s completely pain-free. I saw him maybe a week or two ago, and, he’s feeling really good too.”

Now, Anthopoulos did clarify that throwing well in winter is different from doing it in game situations, but the clean bills of health do give the organization more flexibility with offseason acquisitions than they appeared to have back in early October.

Here’s what Anthopoulos said about Waldrep and Elder, who are (as of now) slated to be battling for the fifth rotation spot entering spring training.

“ Waldrep obviously did a phenomenal job. He has options left. Bryce Elder’s out of options. But you know, the month of September, Bryce was phenomenal and the velocity was up. Overall, I’d say over the course of the year, he had a nice year for us, but really looked good in September.”

Calling Waldrep’s final stretch “phenomenal” is probably the correct objective - in his final ten appearances (nine starts - remember, he was technically coming in to relieve a starter for the resumption of The Speedway Classic), Waldrep went 6-1 with a 2.88 ERA/3.21 FIP/3.85 xERA. He walked 22 and struck out 55 in his 56.1 innings, although fifteen of those walks came in his final five starts as the season’s workload finally caught up to him.

Elder’s final month wasn’t quite phenomenal (3.13 ERA/3.25 FIP/3.43 xERA) but was still pretty good. The sinkerballer sported a 22.2% strikeout-to-walk rate and had four quality starts in his five outings. On the velocity note, he averaged career highs of 93.7 mph on his four-seam fastball and 92.3 on his sinker.

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From the clip above, here’s the team’s rotation outlook as we sit in early December:

Locked-in
Chris Sale
Spencer Strider
Spencer Schwellenbach
Reynaldo López

Fighting for final rotation spot
Hurston Waldrep
Bryce Elder
Grant Holmes

Other guys that could factor in starting depth
Joey Wentz
Jose Suárez

That’s nine potential starters, not counting fast-rising prospects who could debut in 2026 like Blake Burkhalter (if he’s not taken in this week’s Rule 5 draft), J.R. Ritchie, and Lucas Braun or already-debuted prospect Didier Fuentes.

AJ Smith-Shawver, out with a torn UCL, could potentially be a factor late in the year as well, with mid-year being an important milestone as he returns from internal brace surgery.  “He’s doing well. He’s on track rehabbing - I think the 12-month mark will be mid-June, right around there. Normally guys are 12 to 13 months; you don’t see too many guys come back at (the) 12-month mark right now. I think the All-Star Break will be a good kind of barometer in an area where you would see how he does. We’re still far off, but he’s done well. No problems at all.”

Given all of these options, it makes sense that the team isn’t trying to force a rotation add this winter. Anthopoulos did later clarify that they are willing to sign a Qualifying Offer player, saying that the additional Prospect Promotion Incentive pick they received for catcher Drake Baldwin’s Rookie of the Year win could be sacrificed. As always, though, the deal needs to “make sense” from a financial perspective for Atlanta.

When you look at the entirety of this offseason, it’s clear that the Braves feel they can do in any one of several directions. They are no longer forced to overpay for a shortstop, as they have Mauricio Dubón in the fold and have publicly stated they are comfortable with him manning the position if needed this year. Same for starter - they’ve publicly stated that they are comfortable with what they have, but just like at shortstop, are still willing to do more if the deal makes sense.

But will they?