The Atlanta Braves on Saturday announced that pitcher Spencer Strider will be out for the remainder of the 2024 season after undergoing surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow with an internal brace.
Strider, 25, reported elbow discomfort in his last start against the Diamondbacks on April 5. He was feared to have needed a second Tommy John surgery. He missed all of 2019 after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a junior at Clemson.
The recovery timeline for an internal brace procedure is shorter than Tommy John surgery. Strider should be ready to pitch early in the 2025 season with the internal brace procedure. Tommy John surgery could have kept him out for the majority of 2025.
Strider’s injury is at the forefront of the conversation surrounding the prevalence of pitcher injuries in MLB. Strider, Gerrit Cole, Sandy Alcantara and Shane Bieber have all either undergone surgery within the last calendar year or are dealing with an elbow injury. It’s been an issue for years as velocities and spin rates have steadily increased. The problem is easy to identify: More pitchers are throwing at maximum effort and hurting themselves as a result. Implementing solutions to this epidemic is the hard part.
Strider’s injury could have a significant impact on both the NL East race and the National League side of the playoff bracket. The Braves are still the favorites to win the NL East for a seventh-straight season, but their path to repeating is tougher without their ace pitcher. They will have to rely on Max Fried and Chris Sale at the top, with Charlie Morton and Reynaldo López rounding out the top four. The Braves do have numerous depth rotation options. They have enough to cover innings, but they will have to make a move at the deadline in order to acquire another playoff caliber arm.
Losing Strider weakens Atlanta’s playoff rotation and makes them much more vulnerable in a five-game playoff series. The Phillies have beaten Strider three times in the postseason, but they would much rather see someone else take the mound for Atlanta in Game 1 of a postseason series.
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