Braves’ Ace Spencer Strider Out for Season: Atlanta Braves Face World Series Challenge Without Key Pitcher
The UCL was repaired by Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas, using an internal brace, as the Braves revealed on Saturday morning. Strider underwent surgery on Friday.
Though he barely made it through his first two outings of the current season, Strider topped Major League Baseball in wins and strikeouts (281) the previous season. It looks like he won’t be winning the National League Cy Young Award this season. He is going into his third season in the major leagues. In his two appearances at bat in 2024, he only managed to strike out twelve and give up seven runs in nine innings.
In order to better understand his mechanics and prevent future injuries, the 25-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019 while still a player for Clemson. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Justin Toscano recounted his experience in June 2022.
“When you rehab TJ and you start throwing, your first throws are the bare minimum effort,” stated Strider. It’s almost like you’re not even throwing. For the most part, this is the case. Due to your delayed movement, you can somewhat control your body to put it in the positions you wish. As such, it’s difficult to determine whether you’re truly learning some of these new movement patterns.
Strider advanced from the minors to the majors and established himself as a formidable force, but he will need to rethink his approach in order to keep his elbow from failing.
After that, when you begin applying some, you understand that your body is attempting to go back to its natural state, as that is all it has ever known. After realizing that I needed to think more about my front side and that portion of my body, which will put my arm where it needs to be, I stopped concentrating so much on my back arm and tried to get it to shorten up and follow the path I wanted it to go. That’s why everything happened rather quickly when I realized that.
As Strider leaves the rotation, Atlanta will probably look to Bryce Elder to fill the void. Due to a difficult second half of 2023, Elder began this season in Triple-A. Last year, he started 31 games in the major leagues and was even named to the All-Star team.
One more possibility is AJ Smith-Shawver. After appearing in five games with Atlanta last season, he is regarded as the organization’s top prospect. In Triple-A, ten of the first 19 batters he faced reached base because of his powerful fastball, which has been accompanied by a lack of command of his secondary pitches.
Although Strider’s massive void will not be filled, Atlanta may be able to get by five games with whoever it turns to in the near term.