{"id":477461,"date":"2026-02-16T00:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T00:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477461\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T00:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T00:12:13","slug":"braves-hurston-waldrep-dealing-with-elbow-soreness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477461\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves’ Hurston Waldrep Dealing With Elbow Soreness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Braves right-hander Hurston Waldrep<\/a> is dealing with soreness in his throwing elbow, and will visit Dr. Keith Meister tomorrow in Dallas for a consultation, manager Walt Weiss told reporters (including MLB.com\u2019s Mark Bowman<\/a>).\u00a0 Waldrep has already undergone an MRI that didn\u2019t reveal any structural damage, though the scan did reveal some \u201cloose bodies,\u201d as Weiss described the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some things in there that shouldn\u2019t be there, I guess.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s fairly common with pitchers,\u201d Weiss said.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want to elaborate on the loose bodies, because I\u2019m not totally sure, but it probably needs to be dealt with.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what that looks like as far as procedure or anything, but I guess Dr. Meister will let us know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selected 24th overall in the 2023 draft, Waldrep made his MLB debut less than a year after his draft date, though he was tagged for a 16.71 ERA over his first two starts and seven innings.\u00a0 The righty was then placed on the 15-day injured list due to elbow inflammation and spent about six weeks on the shelf before he was activated and optioned back to Triple-A for the remainder of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

Waldrep didn\u2019t return to the Show until last August, and made a much better impression the second time around.\u00a0 Waldrep started nine of his 10 appearances, delivering a 2.88 ERA, 49.7% grounder rate, 24% strikeout rate, and 9.6% walk rate over 56 1\/3 innings.\u00a0 While the lack of control left something to be desired, Waldrep did an excellent job of limiting big contact (4% barrel rate) and both his splitter and 95.9mph sinker were plus pitches.<\/p>\n

This solid performance didn\u2019t guarantee Waldrep a spot in the 2026 rotation, as the Braves were seemingly set with a projected top five of Chris Sale<\/a>, Spencer Strider<\/a>, Reynaldo Lopez<\/a>, Grant Holmes<\/a>, and Spencer Schwellenbach<\/a>.\u00a0 There was also an expectation that Atlanta would pursue more starting pitching this winter in a nod to the injury concerns that their incumbent starters dealt with in both 2025, and throughout their careers.<\/p>\n

Though Spring Training has just gotten underway, the injury bug has already made an unwelcome return to the Braves\u2019 camp.\u00a0 Schwellenbach has already been placed on the 60-day IL due to elbow inflammation, and now Waldrep looks to probably be facing some kind of IL stint.\u00a0 Even if the visit to Dr. Meister doesn\u2019t led to any major developments, the Braves will probably shut Waldrep down until his discomfort lessens, and a season-opening stint on at least the 15-day IL seems likely so Waldrep can complete his pre-season ramp-up.<\/p>\n

With Waldrep out of the picture, Bryce Elder<\/a>, Joey Wentz<\/a>, Didier Fuentes<\/a>, and minor league signings Martin Perez<\/a> and Carlos Carrasco<\/a> remain in the competition for Atlanta\u2019s fifth starter job.\u00a0 On paper, the Braves still have a good amount of rotation depth, though the argument that the team could or should acquire more starting pitching has only gotten louder in the wake of these latest injury concerns.<\/p>\n

President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said on Friday<\/a> that the team remained on the hunt for more of a front-of-the-rotation type that could start a playoff game, rather than a pure depth starter.\u00a0 Looking at the list of remaining free agent starters, Lucas Giolito<\/a> (who has been linked to the Braves on the rumor mill), Max Scherzer<\/a>, or Zack Littell<\/a> could potentially fit the bill, though it might be hard seeing any of that trio displace a healthy Sale, Strider, or Lopez as Atlanta\u2019s top choices in a playoff rotation.\u00a0 Obviously, the first concern for the Braves in the wake of a 76-86 season is just to get into the postseason altogether, and a lack of healthy pitching was one of the key reasons behind Atlanta\u2019s disappointing 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Braves right-hander Hurston Waldrep is dealing with soreness in his throwing elbow, and will visit Dr. Keith Meister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,78916,462,82],"class_list":["post-477461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hurston-waldrep","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}