This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Austin Riley will have a far more productive second half. Ronald Acuña Jr. will be on the field far more frequently over the season’s final few months. As for Drake Baldwin, it’s just a matter of time before he regains his timing and resumes his role as one of baseball’s top hitters.
While debatable, these are opinions you can at least comfortably argue when discussing how the Braves’ offense might halt its struggles.
As for the Braves' rotation, good luck trying to predict how that ship will be righted. Yeah, there’s reason to expect the team to pursue at least one top starting pitcher before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline. But three or four weeks worth of games may pass before external help is located.
As for the internal options that could help turn things around, there’s reason to be excited about what Hurston Waldrep might offer over the next few weeks.
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Waldrep walked four in two innings during his season debut against the Giants on Sunday. And yeah, he issued six walks in 7 2/3 innings for Triple-A Gwinnett before being promoted. But four of those walks came in a rain-soaked, three-inning outing on June 16.
Waldrep threw two scoreless innings after Reynaldo López allowed one run over three innings against the Giants on Friday. This was López’s first start since he was moved to the bullpen near the end of April.
Could he get better with additional starts? Maybe. But Waldrep certainly seems to have the higher upside.
How will the Braves use these two moving forward? Manager Walt Weiss said they could piggyback with each other again during one of the games against the Cardinals this week.
López is starting Wednesday’s game. So, there’s a chance Waldrep will also pitch at some point that night.
The Braves needed to again alter rotation plans after Bryce Elder lasted just four innings on Saturday, forcing Grant Holmes to throw four innings of relief. The Braves must first determine how to progress with Elder, whose velocity was down approximately 1 mile per hour with each of his pitches during his latest rough outing.
Elder has a 2.70 ERA in nine starts on regular rest and a 5.56 ERA in his other eight starts. But the velo drop will likely lead the Braves to give him extra time before his next start.
Elder’s ERA has risen from 1.97 to 4.01 as he has allowed 29 earned runs over his past 30 innings (8.70 ERA). There were actually two decent starts within this six-start stretch. So, maybe it’s better to point out he has allowed 19 earned runs over his past 14 innings (three starts).
This has been an odd stretch for Elder, who posted a 2.30 ERA over 18 starts between Aug. 24, 2025 and May 22. The only qualified MLB pitchers with a better ERA during that span were Cam Schlittler (1.93), Cristopher Sánchez (1.99), Paul Skenes (2.03) and Chris Sale (2.20).
That 18-start stretch ended just a month ago. So, you can hope this has just been a rough couple of weeks. He certainly was unlucky on Saturday when he surrendered just five hits, two of which were Rafael Devers homers. Devers’ three-run shot in the third looked like a foul ball before the Bay winds brought the ball back to clang against the right-field foul pole.
Knowing how recent Elder was in the midst of a long successful stretch, there’s reason to think he can turn things around. As for Martín Pérez, he certainly is capable of continuing to give the Braves five-plus solid innings on a consistent basis.
Pérez has completed at least five innings in 11 of his 12 starts. Holmes has gone fewer than five innings in four of his past five starts. This combination has taxed a bullpen that was short a few times over the past few weeks.
The Braves will continue to tinker with the rotation.
While there’s a chance Spencer Schwellenbach (elbow fracture/bone spurs) returns in September and AJ Smith-Shawver (Tommy John surgery) possibly becomes an option in August, the Braves can’t count on Spencer Strider (elbow inflammation) returning this season.
So, the rumor mill will draw even greater interest from Braves fans leading up to this year’s Trade Deadline. But in the meantime, the team must do whatever it can to internally fix what is currently a fractured rotation.