⚾️ Spencer Schwellenbach Injury Update: When Will He Be Back and Return to Braves?

Atlanta Braves pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach showed tremendous promise last season. The 25-year-old righty pitched a complete game victory over the Brewers on June 11, 2025, and he struck out a career-high 12 batters against the Phillies on June 28, 2025. Unfortunately, it’s been all bad news for Schwellenbach since that outing against Philadelphia, as a fractured pitching elbow ended his 2025 season, and now complications with that same elbow are halting his start to the 2026 season. Below, we will offer a Schwellenbach injury update and look at when he could potentially return and be back in the Braves’ rotation.

⏳ When will Spencer Schwellenbach be back and return to Braves?

Schwellenbach had been gearing up to be a focal point in the Atlanta rotation at the start of the regular season, but before the start of spring training, he experienced discomfort in his pitching elbow at the end of a bullpen session. The Saginaw, Michigan native was placed on the 60-day IL on Feb. 10 and had what is believed to have been elbow arthroscopy for the removal of loose bodies on Feb. 18.

The good news is that Schwellenbach will likely pitch this season, but the Braves have not yet offered much in the way of a timeline for his return.

A full recovery from that type of elbow surgery typically takes around 6-8 weeks.

It has already been five weeks and two days since the surgery.

Because of the sensitivity surrounding pitchers and their elbows, you can bet that the Braves won’t even entertain a ramp up to return until eight weeks from when the surgery occurred. Eight weeks when the surgery transpired would be Wednesday, April 15, so anticipate more concrete news about a potential Schwellenbach return around that time.

We project that Schwellenbach will have several rehab starts before he returns to the Braves’ rotation, and that we likely won’t see him in an MLB game again until late May at the earliest.

⚾️ Spencer Schwellenbach fantasy baseball outlook

Schwellenbach is still owned in 50% of Yahoo! Fantasy baseball leagues despite the injury. His ADP at Yahoo was 132 overall, so he was going around the 13th round in most 10-team fantasy drafts.

This season will be just his third season in the Majors.

In 2024, Schwellenbach posted a 3.35 ERA with 127 strikeouts in 123.2 innings pitched.

Last season, he pitched 110.2 total innings and owned a 3.09 ERA with 108 total strikeouts.

🔴 Braves betting odds

The Braves currently have +2000 World Series odds. Only 10 teams have lower odds to win it all.

Atlanta had a 86.5 projected win total at the best MLB betting sites at the start of this season.

Walt Weiss’ club is currently +290 to win the NL East, with the Mets (+130) and Phillies (+165) ahead of them on the division odds board.