Alex Anthopoulos risks causing irreversible damage to Braves farm system

Losing Spencer Strider is the kind of injury that very few teams can overcome. The Atlanta Braves are one of the few that can survive and still compete for a World Series, and that’s largely thanks to the work Alex Anthopoulos has done as the team’s president of baseball operations.

Anthopoulos has arguably assembled the most complete roster in the majors, but he has his work cut out for him this season. Not only are his players underperforming, especially on the position player side, but injuries are rife. Don’t forget that reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. is also done for the season.

Replacing Strider isn’t something that can be done with the snap of a finger, but it was assumed Atlanta had enough organizational depth to at least field a solid No. 5 starter for the regular season. Two months after Strider’s injury, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Not only did MLB guys like Bryce Elder, Ray Kerr, Darius Vines and Allan Winans struggle, but so did rookies who had yet to pitch in the majors. Hurston Waldrep had a chance to change that in his MLB debut on Sunday, but he did nothing.

Waldrep, Atlanta’s No. 2 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, faced the Washington Nationals in his MLB debut. Over the first three rounds, things went extremely well as Waldrep faced the minimum. Then the fourth round came and everything went wrong. The 22-year-old allowed four runs in that inning while recording just two outs and leaving the bases loaded before Brian Snitker removed him from the game. Aaron Bummer allowed a three-run double on the first pitch he threw, allowing three more Waldrep runners to score.

Waldrep’s last sentence wasn’t pretty. It was just a bad inning, but a bad inning can change any game. His compatriot Spencer Schwellenbach had a similar problem. He has an 8.38 ERA in his first two starts, allowing nine runs over his first 9.2 innings of work, with the nine runs coming in just three separate innings. The Braves lost both games.

They both showed flashes, but neither showed enough to warrant sticking around. Small sample size, sure, but they don’t look entirely MLB ready. That’s excusable since they threw a total of 62.1 innings in AA, but that’s part of the problem. Waldrep is responsible for 49.1 over his two professional seasons. Waldrep also has a total of 10.1 AAA innings under his belt, compared to Schwellenbach’s zero. These guys just don’t have enough experience and are thrown straight into the fire.

For now, the Braves are better off leaning on a guy like Elder who has had success in MLB in the past, or scouring the trade market for a starting pitcher.

There is no denying the talent that Waldrep and Schwellenbach possess. They’re top prospects for a reason, and in Waldrep’s case, he was a first-round pick for a reason. However, that doesn’t mean they’re ready to take on MLB competition right away. Anthopoulos learned this the hard way.

Using high-end prospects in the majors with little to no experience in the upper minors not only puts the Braves in a difficult situation, but can end up hurting these pitchers when they get shaken up at the MLB level. Hopefully this is something Anthopoulos learns from not only now, but also in the future.