The AJ Smith-Shawver news that Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos shared last week in an interview with BravesVision is coming exactly to fruition.
The right-handed pitcher is set to officially begin his rehab assignment Tuesday night with Single-A Augusta, the Braves announced Tuesday morning.
Smith-Shawver’s first rehab start is slated for a 7:05 p.m. EDT game time with Augusta hosting the Salem RidgeYaks. You can watch the livestream if you have an MLB.TV
subscription.
It’s approaching 13 months since Smith-Shawver underwent Tommy John surgery last June. His last appearance was May 29 and the injury derailed what seemed to be a potential breakout season as he had a 3.86 ERA in nine appearances with 42 strikeouts, 21 walks and four home runs allowed in 44 1/3 innings.
The early returns from Smith-Shawver’s build-up work ahead of the rehab assignment officially beginning have been promising, Anthopoulos said.
“He was throwing the ball really well in Florida. He looked good,” Anthopoulos said. ” … Obviously it’s a max 30-day rehab assignment. We don’t necessarily always go all that way. We’ll see how he looks and he’ll build up.”
With Spencer Strider still sidelined for the foreseeable future and Bryce Elder coming hurtling back down to earth, more rotation options would be a big help for a Braves team which is all of a sudden clinging to a 3.5-game division lead.
Hurston Waldrep’s return over the weekend was Step 1. It seems Smith-Shawver will be Step 2. And with Spencer Schwellenbach heading to Florida soon for a potential return in August or September, per MLB.com, it would seem he will be Step 3.
Now to see if the Braves bridge that further over the next month with a trade acquisition ahead of the deadline.
“Look, it’s going to be one of those things where we’ll take the five best guys, the guys that are hot,” Anthopoulos said.
