Braves move Spencer Schwellenbach to 15-day IL with fractured elbow

Another stunning gut punch of an injury for the Braves

This has been a busy day for Atlanta Braves news, which is usually a bad sign with the way things have gone for the better part of this season and last season as well. As it turns out, we have some more bad news to share as another Braves pitcher has gone on the shelf with an injury that has seemingly come out of the blue.

This time, it’s Spencer Schwellenbach. At some point during his great start against the Phillies on this past Saturday night, Schwellenbach suffered what MLB.com’s Mark Bowman has reported as being a “tiny” fracture in his throwing elbow and as such, the sophomore hurler has been placed on the 15-Day IL. Austin Cox has been called up as a corresponding move and the Braves also made Jurickson Profar’s reactivation from the Restricted List and Daysbel Hernández’s activation from the IL official as well.

Spencer Schwellenbach was well on his way to improving upon his impressive rookie campaign. Schwellenbach has an ERA of 3.09 (75 ERA-) and 3.20 FIP (82 FIP-) over 17 starts and 110.2 innings pitched, giving him 2.2 fWAR on the season. Schwellenbach and Chris Sale were essentially running neck-and-neck with each other at the top of the rotation and now both pitchers will be out until August at least. Sale may be back by August and Bowman is also reporting that Schwellenbach could shoot for a potential return in September.

Needless to say, this is probably a knockout shot for the Braves as far as this season is concerned. Losing Sale was already a tough blow to withstand but losing Schwellenbach at the same time really might be too much for this rotation to withstand. As of right now, the only starting pitcher left from the Opening Day roster still active right now is Grant Holmes. The good news is that Spencer Strider is back and appears to be finding his footing but for now, Atlanta’s starting rotation is extremely short-handed and will be for a long time, yet.