By: Michael Spiers

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

For the past couple of seasons, it has felt like the Atlanta Braves have been playing two opponents at once: whoever is on the schedule and the relentless injury bug.

Unfortunately for Braves fans, the second opponent is already winning again in 2026, and the season hasn’t even officially begun.

Spring training is supposed to be a time for optimism. It is when teams fine tune their rosters, build momentum, and dream about October baseball.

Instead, the Braves once again find themselves scanning medical reports and patching together a pitching staff before Opening Day.

The latest blow came when Spencer Strider was scratched from his final spring start and placed on the injured list with an oblique strain.

Strider had shown encouraging signs this spring after working his way back from surgery and other injuries that affected the previous season.

Now he will begin the year on the shelf, leaving a major hole in the rotation before the first real pitch of the season is even thrown.

On its own, losing Strider would be a concern. He is one of the most dominant strikeout pitchers in baseball when healthy and a cornerstone of Atlanta’s pitching plans. But the real problem is that he’s just one name on a growing list.

Spencer Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day injured list after elbow surgery earlier this year. Hurston Waldrep is also sidelined following elbow surgery. Joey Wentz tore his ACL during a spring training game and will miss the entire season.

Suddenly the Braves are entering the season with a rotation that looks very different than what the front office envisioned when camp opened.

Chris Sale will almost certainly take the Opening Day start, but the rest of the rotation already feels like it is being assembled on the fly.

Reynaldo López is attempting to return after shoulder surgery and has shown a concerning drop in velocity during recent outings, though he insists it was simply mechanical issues.

Behind him are pitchers like Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder, with depth options such as José Suárez or Didier Fuentes potentially being forced into action earlier than expected.

It is the type of situation that makes Braves fans feel like they have seen this movie before. Over the last few seasons, Atlanta has had the talent to compete for championships, but injuries have repeatedly disrupted the plan. When one key player returns, another seems to go down.

The pitching staff in particular has been hit hard, and the cycle is continuing in frustratingly familiar fashion.

If you ask me, the thing that makes this year especially concerning is the timing.

These injuries are piling up before the regular season even begins. Teams expect to deal with injuries during a long 162 game season. They do not expect their roster to look like a triage unit in March.

Even the position player group has not been spared from setbacks.

Newly re-signed shortstop Ha Seong Kim is expected to miss time following finger tendon surgery, while catcher Sean Murphy is still recovering from hip surgery.

As we all know, Jurickson Profar will miss the entire season due to a PED suspension, and I hope he is never given the chance to put on a Braves jersey again.

Add it all together and the Braves are entering the year already short-handed.

The frustrating part is that this roster, when healthy, still looks like a legitimate contender. The core talent is there. The lineup can still produce runs and the pitching staff still has high end arms.

But baseball seasons are not played on paper, and championships rarely go to the team with the best roster on opening day. They go to the team that survives the grind of six months.

Right now, the Braves are already grinding before the real games even start.

Of course, there is still a long season ahead. Some of these injuries may turn out to be minor setbacks rather than long-term problems.

Pitchers will return. Young arms may step up. Baseball seasons often take strange and unpredictable turns. But the early signs are impossible to ignore.

For a team that has spent the last few years battling bad injury luck, the Braves appear to be picking up right where they left off.