The Atlanta Braves come into the 2025 season looking to reassemble their starting rotation. Max Fried and Charlie Morton left the team during free agency and while Spencer Strider took another step in his rehab from Tommy John surgery, the Braves will at least be without him for the start of the upcoming season.
Atlanta didn’t make a big free-agent move to replace either pitcher, so it will be on some of the others to step up. While Spencer Schwellenbach and Grant Holmes are two players the Braves will be relying on, it might be a former World Series champion’s offseason adjustments that keeps the rotation afloat.
Ian Anderson’s Offseason Adjustments Hope to Fuel Comeback 2025 Season
Ian Anderson is one of the higher-profile names looking to secure a spot in the rotation this season but fans may not remember him as he hasn’t pitched in a major league game since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022. Anderson did return to the mound, throwing 68 combined innings in 15 minor league starts last season but is expected to compete for a spot on the back end of the rotation entering Spring Training.
“It felt good. It was nice to get almost 70 innings,” Anderson told Battery Power’s Grant McAuley. “It was kind of nice to get back on a regular schedule and just focus on competing again, making starts, getting innings, making pitches, kind of working through innings and working through lineups. Those innings, I’m going to be looking back on those come July and really realize just how important they were for me.”
The No. 3 overall pick in the 2016 draft, Anderson made his major league debut during the COVID-shortened 2020 season and pitched well, going 3-2 with a 1.95 ERA. He backed it up with a strong 2021 season, going 9-5 with a 3.58 ERA and finishing fifth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting but elbow issues forced him to hit a wall in 2022, posting a 10-6 record and 5.00 ERA in 22 starts.
Anderson went under the knife in April 2023 and the rehab process took over a year before he was able to return to the mound last summer. While last season was a case of getting his feet wet, the 26-year-old dove in head first over the winter, working to improve his general consistency, fastball velocity and find a quality breaking ball.
Without the adjustments, Anderson’s stuff was good enough to post 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings in his career. But he also has had issues with walks, giving out four free passes through nine frames, which made attacking the strike zone a priority.
“I was just trying to get back to where I was. I think that was the main emphasis,” Anderson said. “Other than that, there might be a couple of new things that I showcase, but I’m still for the most part, going to be the same guy. I just hope to go out there and attack the zone and compete.”
Anderson is out of minor league options entering the season, so it will be an important Spring Training. But after his first normal offseason in two years, the righthander feels optimistic and is ready to compete for a roster spot.
“It was nice to have a normal offseason and just be able to do the throwing I want to do, do the training I want to do, and be able to relax too, a little bit,” Anderson said. “The rehab process is kind of everyday. But yeah, looking forward to coming to camp feeling healthy and competing. There’s a good opportunity here, so I’ve just got to go out and do what I can do and hopefully get back to where I know I can be.”