Another tough week for Atlanta was highlighted by an outstanding start.
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the Atlanta Braves had a below-.500 week where their offense couldn’t sustain any positive momentum despite the team’s starting pitching giving them a chance to win night-in-and-night-out.
Coming into Sunday’s game against the Boston Red Sox – one that they dropped when their offense went dormant, yet again – several position players were having weeks that could have thrust them into Player of the Week contention if they had a stand-out game offensively against Garrett Crochet.
That did not happen as outside of a two-hit performance, including a home run, from Marcell Ozuna, it was crickets for the Braves.
Several members of the team’s bullpen had solid weeks, but ultimately, the Player of the Week for this week came down to two starting pitchers – Chris Sale and Spencer Schwellenbach.
With each member of Atlanta’s starting staff only toeing the rubber for a single game this week, Sale’s effort against the Phillies in the second game of the double-header on Thursday was notable.
He struck out eight batters – the final being the 2,500th of his career. It wasn’t his best start of May – his production for the month won him the Battery Power Braves Player of the Month Award for May – but it was another scoreless outing for the left-handed leader of the team’s rotation.
Despite his history-making performance on Thursday, it was Sale’s stablemate who was this week’s winner.
Battery Power Braves Player of the Week: Spencer Schwellenbach
Pitching on his 25th birthday, Spencer Schwellenbach had a little bit extra in the tank on Saturday against the Red Sox. He topped 100 MPH on the radar gun twice and threw multiple pitches that exceed his prior career high velocity.
Schwellenbach struck out 11 batters in 6.1 inning – allowing on five hit and no runs in his 99-pitch performance while averaging 97.9 MPH on the fastball he used 65.7-percent of the time.
It was a powerful performance for the right-hander who had just marked his one-year anniversary of his major league debut on May 29.
Twelve starts into 2025 and Schwellenbach is pitching almost identically to how he ended 2024 – as one of the best pitchers in the National League. His strikeout percentage, walk rate, FIP, xFIP , batting average against, home run rate, average velocity, and more are all just above or below last year’s 21 starts.
Schwellenbach picking up where he left off last season is no small feat for the Braves given that the team has lost starting pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver for the year; faces an uncertain return for expected number three starter Reynaldo Lopez; and has yet to see a completely back-to-form Spencer Strider who has only made a handful of starts.
And so, for the third time this year, Spencer Schwellenbach is the Battery Power Braves Player of the week.