AJ Smith-Shawver to start NL Wild Card Game 1 for Braves

ATLANTA — AJ Smith-Shawver‘s second Major League assignment of this year will be his first career postseason start.

Sale will miss the Wild Card Series because of back issues that date back to his Sept. 19 start. As for each of the other current members of the Braves’ rotation, none of them would be on regular rest before Game 2 is played on Wednesday.

So, the Braves will hand the ball to Smith-Shawver, who posted a 4.86 ERA in 20 starts for Triple-A Gwinnett this year. He strained his left oblique when he threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings against the Cubs on May 23. That was his only big league start during the regular season.

With their bullpen thin, the Braves may have Bryce Elder follow Smith-Shawver at some point during Tuesday’s game. Elder was an All-Star in 2023, but like Smith-Shawver, he spent most of this year with Gwinnett.

Smith-Shawver was a skilled Texas high school quarterback who flirted with the possibility of following the same path as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes by playing both baseball and football at Texas Tech University. But he accepted the $997,500 signing bonus the Braves gave him after taking him in the eighth round of the 2021 MLB Draft.

Smith-Shawver has experienced a quick rise, making his MLB debut last year. An issue with a growth plate in his shoulder had led him to stop pitching when he was a high school freshman at Colleyville Heritage High School, which also produced his close friend Bobby Witt Jr. But he decided to start pitching again in the summer of 2020 and immediately drew attention from scouts.

Smith-Shawver’s fastball averaged 95.4 mph in his final Triple-A start on Sept. 22. He added a changeup last winter and limited opponents to a .158 batting average with that pitch for Gwinnett this year.