Things for the Atlanta Braves have finally started to settle down a little bit. Some wins are finally coming and the team as a chance to win their second straight series on Sunday with Chris Sale on the mound. However, the team also just made a truly bizarre choice regarding their rotation and how it will look upon Spencer Strider’s return.

Neither AJ Smith-Shawver nor Bryce Elder have exactly wowed with their work in 2025. AJSS has been very inconsistent with his command among other issues and Elder remains a guy that doesn’t miss bats nearly enough. When Strider presumably gets activated this week, this are the two guys that could be bounced from the rotation.

Despite both struggling, Smith-Shawver certainly has more upside and most thought he would get a reasonably long leash to figure things out versus Elder who is only playing because Reynaldo Lopez got hurt. Well, the Braves made a roster move to prepare for Strider’s return, but it was Elder that actually survived as Smith-Shawver was sent back to Triple-A.

Braves send AJ Smith-Shawver back to minors, recall Michael Petersen

Let’s get Petersen out of the way first. The Braves could use a fresh arm hanging around the next few days before Strider comes back and Petersen has the velocity to have some upside out of the bullpen. He’s just a depth arm, but not an uninteresting one.

Where things get weird is that the Braves sent Smith-Shawver down instead of Elder, but there is potentially some logic to that. The schedule lines up with three Thursdays off in a row coming up and that could lead to some starts getting skipped. Atlanta may not want Smith-Shawver to have his playing time compromised and are fine with skipping Elder starts (as they should be).

Assuming Smith-Shawver pitches well in Triple-A, he is going to get another opportunity with the Braves this year. As for Elder, he may be in the middle of his last chance to prove he belongs in the big leagues.