Two years ago, Braves catcher Sean Murphy suffered a Grade 1 left oblique strain on Opening Day and ended up missing nearly two months. The club doesn’t expect to be without starter Spencer Strider for nearly as long this season.
Strider was placed on the 15-day injured list with a Grade 1 left oblique strain prior to Opening Day, but in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sunday, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos indicated that the right-hander’s injury wasn’t as bad as the one Murphy had in 2024.
According to Anthopoulos, Murphy said it took him four weeks just to get to the point where he could sneeze or cough without feeling something in his side.
“Strider didn’t have any of those symptoms at all," Anthopoulos said. "It was mild, and I think it will be sooner rather than later that you see him back."
Injury issues are nothing new for Strider. The righty missed most of 2024 while recovering from surgery to repair a torn UCL in his right elbow, then suffered a right hamstring strain after his first start back last season that cost him more than a month on the IL. He also dealt with a left oblique strain in 2022 and missed about a month, sustaining the injury on Sept. 18 before returning to start Game 3 of the NLDS against the Phillies on Oct. 14.
This particular IL stint was made retroactive to March 22, so Strider is eligible to return as early as April 6.
The Braves’ staff could certainly use his help. With Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, AJ Smith-Shawver and Joey Wentz joining Strider on the injured list, Atlanta is working with precious little rotation depth behind Chris Sale, Reynaldo López and Grant Holmes, each of whom spent significant time on the IL last year.
That said, it's unclear which version of Strider the Braves will be getting after he finished 2025 with a 4.45 ERA and 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings over 23 starts, a far cry from the 3.36 ERA and 13.7 K/9 he recorded across 2022-23.