The 2025 season has started not with a bang but with a deeply uncomfortable thud, and it’s only April. If the baseball gods are keeping score, it sure feels like the Atlanta Braves’ debt has come due.
The Braves are 0-6, their prized offseason pickup is sitting out with an 80-game PED suspension, and key arms are falling faster than spring blossoms.
Let’s break it down like we’re calling it live.
Catching Chaos For the Braves
It started in spring training when the Braves’ starting catcher suffered a broken rib. That’s already a big deal as catchers are the glue guys. Atlanta was lucky they have a young star in the making with Drake Baldwin.
You’re not just replacing a glove when you lose your backstop; you’re rearranging the symphony. That was just the appetizer.
Profar Bombshell, Lopez Breakdown
Then there is Jurickson Profar’s suspension of 80 games for violating MLB’s PED policy. Profar was supposed to be the big addition this offseason.
As a switch-hitting veteran coming off a breakout year, he was expected to bring flexibility to a lineup already full of firepower. Now he’s useless in the dugout until midseason, and cannot even help if the team makes the playoffs.
As if that wasn’t enough, Reynaldo López—the electric arm Atlanta was banking on to stabilize the rotation—goes down with a shoulder injury. And not just a tweak. We’re talking surgery. That’s three impact players sidelined before Game 10.
Anthopoulos Spinning the Braves Roster Wheel
GM Alex Anthopoulos started dealing with the team in scramble mode. The Braves snagged outfielder Stuart Fairchild from the Reds, hoping he can provide defensive value and the occassional hit. It’s a patch, not a fix, but you take what you can get in times like these.
Then came another familiar transaction with a familiar partner—yes, another deal with the Angels. Atlanta acquired reliever Michael Petersen for cash considerations after LA DFA’d him. Petersen’s been around the block in the last year—Dodgers, Marlins, Blue Jays, Angels—and now lands in Triple-A Gwinnett.
His MLB numbers? Not great. 14 earned runs in 19 2/3 innings with more walks than you’d like to see. But in Triple-A last year? A shiny 1.64 ERA over 33 innings. That’s not nothing.
And he’s got options left. That makes him a flexible chess piece for a team that might soon be playing a lot more checkers if the injury bug keeps biting.
Familiar Faces and Front Office Friendships
It’s worth noting that the Braves and Angels have become frequent trade partners lately. Anthopoulos and Angels GM Perry Minasian go way back—Minasian was once Atlanta’s VP of Baseball Ops.
The pipeline between the two clubs has been active, with deals for Jorge Soler, Angel Perdomo, and Ian Anderson all going down in recent months. When the wheels come off, it helps to have a familiar face picking up the phone.
Braves Need Strider and Acuña
Atlanta’s season feels like it hinges on the return of two stars at this point. Get Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. back healthy, and maybe the 0-6 start becomes a footnote. Until then, it’s triage, duct tape, and a whole lot of grit.
