Among the many bizarre storylines from the Braves’ disastrous 2025 campaign, perhaps none sums it up better than this: Atlanta set an MLB record by using 71 different pitchers in a single season.
Had someone predicted that before Opening Day, it would’ve been much easier to envision the Braves missing the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
This was a team that lost two cornerstones from its rotation — Max Fried and Charlie Morton — and its top two setup men in A.J. Minter and Joe Jiménez. Despite losing nearly 500 innings of production, Atlanta chose not to spend a single dollar on pitching last winter, instead banking on internal reinforcements.
The Cost of Standing Pat
That gamble backfired almost immediately. The Braves entered 2025 with minimal pitching depth, and once injuries began to pile up, the season quickly spiraled.
Alex Anthopoulos worked tirelessly throughout the summer to patch together a staff — cycling through waiver claims, minor league call-ups, and openers — but the real fixes should’ve come months earlier in free agency.
The result was chaos: an MLB record 71 pitchers were used, shattering the previous mark of 67 held by the 2019 Mariners.
Bryce Elder Leads the Patchwork Rotation
The instability is perhaps best illustrated by Bryce Elder, who didn’t even make the Opening Day roster. By season’s end, he led Atlanta in innings pitched — over 150 — with a 5.30 ERA across 28 starts.
Elder’s durability kept the Braves afloat at times, but his performance underscored just how thin the club’s rotation had become.
A Clear Offseason Mandate
If there’s one takeaway from 2025, it’s this: Atlanta can’t afford another offseason of ignoring its pitching staff.
Injured arms, such as those of Spencer Strider and Kyle Wright, are expected to return, but relying solely on rebound seasons is a risky plan. Pitchers returning from major injuries are notoriously unpredictable.
What Anthopoulos can control is the quality of the depth behind them — and that must be a top priority this winter. The Braves’ 2025 collapse wasn’t about offense, chemistry, or effort. It was about depth and planning.
Atlanta has the talent to rebound quickly — but only if it treats pitching not as an afterthought, but as the foundation it has always been in its best eras.
