Chris Sale Is the Only Sure Thing: Inside the Braves' Rotation Crisis Heading Into 2027

The Atlanta Braves' 2026 season lasted longer than almost anyone expected and still ended with the same familiar thud — a home loss in October while the bats went quiet. Los Angeles closed out the NLDS with a 4-1 win at Truist Park in Game 4, sending the Dodgers to a third straight NLCS and sending Atlanta into an offseason with a very uncomfortable question attached to it.

That question has nothing to do with Matt Olson, who hit 41 home runs, or Michael Harris II, who finished at .294. It's about pitching, and specifically about who, beyond Chris Sale, will be healthy enough to take the ball in April.

Sale was the staff; the staff was Sale

Sale's 2026 was genuinely one of the best seasons of a Hall-of-Fame-adjacent career: a 2.16 ERA with 200 strikeouts in 162.2 innings, a 0.98 WHIP and 14 wins. Among Braves starters, he was essentially the entire sure thing. Atlanta finished sixth in the majors in team ERA at 3.58, and the bullpen contributed a 2.71 ERA as a unit — but the rotation's stability ran through one left arm.

That is not a formula that repeats itself gracefully. The news of the week, in effect, is the realization of what happens around Sale next.

Five arms on the 60-day list

The injury report reads like a rotation blueprint crossed out. Joe Jiménez, Joey Wentz, Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep all sit on the 60-day injured list. Waldrep and Schwellenbach have already been slated for season-ending elbow surgery — MLB.com reported Schwellenbach's frustration after setbacks stalled his rehab. The broader read from the club's own coverage is that Schwellenbach's 2027 status is clouded enough that the Braves can't plan on him.

Strider's case is its own saga. His MRI showed no ligament damage, only elbow inflammation, and an examination with Dr. Keith Meister confirmed no new surgery was needed. But 2026 was uneven even before he hit the IL, and his 2025 (a 4.45 ERA over 125.1 innings) suggests the version that looked like a perennial Cy Young contender is not something the team can bank on. AJ Smith-Shawver's 6.61 ERA in nine appearances didn't answer the depth question either.

The Mahle decision is the whole offseason

Which brings us to the most consequential item on the Braves' to-do list: Tyler Mahle.

Mahle's full-season numbers — 3.99 ERA, 1.23 WHIP in 27 starts — undersell how he finished. Over his last ten starts he posted a 1.86 ERA with a 0.93 WHIP, and he was arguably Atlanta's best pitcher in the postseason, throwing 6.1 innings and allowing one earned run in his Game 4 start. He has publicly expressed interest in returning. MLB Trade Rumors framed the broader offseason outlook around exactly this: a team that won the NL East and beat Philadelphia in the Wild Card round now needs to fill real roster holes.

Re-signing Mahle is not a luxury for a club with this much uncertainty. Without him, the projected rotation behind Sale thins out to rehabilitation timelines and unproven volume.

The internal wild card

One name worth watching: Didier Fuentes. A 2.45 ERA across 58 appearances with 92 strikeouts in 73.1 innings is a real major-league weapon, even if he's been used almost exclusively in relief. Alex Anthopoulos has publicly acknowledged the rotation is messy while flagging Fuentes as intriguing, which suggests the club may at least explore stretching him out. That's a plan with upside and obvious risk.

The Braves' offense, for what it's worth, gave them a plus-115 run differential and 208 homers — production that should keep them competitive in the NL East regardless. But October exposed the margin. A team that lost a deciding game at home because it couldn't score doesn't get to treat starting pitching as a secondary concern.

Sale anchors 2027. Everything behind him is a question, and the answers arrive this winter.