Atlanta’s rookie starting pitcher stood out amongst a week of excellent pitching.
This week’s choice for the Battery Power Player of the Week was one of the easier ones so far in 2025.
For the week, the Atlanta Braves received excellent work from their pitching staff – both starters and relievers. Despite no off-days during the week and team being in the midst of 17 games in 17 days, it wasn’t the hurlers who led to a disappointing 4-3 week, based on the competition they faced.
Offensively, it is worth giving a tip-of-the-hat to catcher Drake Baldwin who entered the week with a .728 OPS and raised his OPS more than 100 points to .846 after Sunday’s contest. He was used regularly off-the-bench in games he didn’t start – with good reason given he may be the team’s best hitter at-the-moment. He also picked his first walk-off hit of his big league career against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.
Outside of isolated individual performances, the rest of the line-up largely struggled. The team played three extra-inning games during the week yet only scored more than four runs once – plating five in Thursday’s 11-inning win over the Reds.
As for the armbarn, well, the bullpen was mostly great. Outside of the troubling struggles of closer Raisel Iglesias, the group-as-a-whole had a good week. Pierce Johnson, Aaron Bummer, Dylan Lee, Enyel De Los Santos and Daysbel Hernandez all either dominated or were effective while seeing a lot of action given the lack of off-days and extra inning affairs.
A special acknowledgement goes to reliever Scott Blewett, who picked up two wins after entering games twice in the 10th inning and pitching clean two inning stints on both occasions. Given the ghost runner rule, that was outstanding work from the journeyman right-handed reliever who joined the Braves earlier this season after being let go by two different organizations by mid-April.
In the rotation, Chris Sale seems to have completely returned to form after struggling in his first few starts. This week he made two starts totaling 12.1 innings pitched. He struck out 18 while allowing only two earned runs and scattering 13 hits and four walks.
Sale would have been the choice for this week’s Player of the Week had it not been fantastic week had by fellow starting pitcher, rookie AJ Smith-Shawver.
Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images
Batter Power Braves Player of the Week: AJ Smith-Shawver
Coming into 2025, AJ Smith-Shawver had made six career starts for Atlanta – five in 2023 and one last year. Still only 22-years-old, Smith-Shawver was not being counted on for a key role in the team’s starting rotation coming into Spring Training, but injuries to starters Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Strider have given an opportunity to take the hill six times for Atlanta as a start so far this season.
This past week showcased what the ceiling for the young Texan could be, if he can put all the pieces together.
Against the Reds on Monday night, Smith-Shawver spun a gem, no-hitting Cincinnati for seven innings while dominating them across eight innings allowing one hit, walking four and striking out five.
He followed that up with another strong showing against the Pirates, striking out seven in 5.2 innings while allowing only two earned runs, walking two and allowing five hits.
For the week, he pitched 13.2 innings, allowing only two earned runs, walking six and allowing eight hits while striking out 12.
With Strider likely to return to Atlanta’s rotation in the next week or two, Smith-Shawver has shown he deserves the opportunity to stay in the rotation and continue to build upon the success he’s had in his last three starts since returning from a two-week detour to Triple-A.
Both Sale and Smith-Shawver produced two excellent starts for Atlanta this past week – Sale with more strikeouts but Smith-Shawver with fewer base runners. Sale, however, is the reigning NL Cy Young winner and Smith-Shawver is still trying to establish himself as a full-time big league starter.
With that, the nod goes to Smith-Shawver for the week’s Battery Power Player of the Week.