As feared, Braves' AJ Smith-Shawver diagnosed with torn UCL
ATLANTA – Hard-throwing Atlanta Braves rookie AJ Smith-Shawver has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, as the team feared when he left Thursday's game at Philadelphia after feeling what he said was a pop in the elbow.
An MRI revealed the torn UCL and Smith-Shawver will consult with a specialist before he's expected to have season-ending surgery. He will likely require Tommy John surgery to reconstruct the UCL, which would probably require a 12-13 month rehab for a pitcher like Smith-Shawver having the procedure for the first time.
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Assuming he has the surgery right away, he could target a potential return sometime around the All-Star break or a little earlier in 2026.
'It showed a tear, all the imaging,' said Braves manager Brian Snitker, who didn't provide any more specifics. 'So he'll consult with the physicians or doctors and they'll decide what the next step is.'
While the newer internal brace procedure is a less invasive surgery that typically has a rehab period that's two to three months shorter than Tommy John, that brace procedure is only an option if the ligament is intact, not with a torn UCL like Smith-Shawver has.
Braves teammate Spencer Strider, who had Tommy John surgery while in college in 2019, just returned last month from a 12-month rehab for an internal brace procedure he had to repair his damaged UCL in April 2024. But Strider didn't have a torn ligament, he had bone fragments that had become embedded in the ligament.
The Braves didn't say that Smith-Shawver would definitely have Tommy John surgery, but the only other option presumably would be to rehab without surgery. That might be considered by an aging pitcher near the end of his career, one who doesn't want to rehab for a full year-plus, but it's exceedingly rare among young pitchers — Smith-Shawver is 22 — because it's viewed as putting off the inevitable, especially for a hard-throwing pitcher like Smith-Shawver.
Smith-Shawver was hit in the back of his right foot by a line drive off the bat of Bryson Stott with one out in the third inning Thursday at Philadelphia, and Snitker and a team trainer went to the mound to check on him. After telling them he was fine to continue, he threw four pitches — including three fastballs at 94-96 mph on a day when he had a career-high 97.1 average — to Trea Turner, who flied out on a 380-foot line drive. He threw 10 pitches at 98.2 mph or above, including one at 99.6, the second-hardest of his career.
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It was after the Turner out that Snitker, pitching coach Rick Kranitz and a team trainer went back out to check on Smith-Shawver, after Strider had noticed Smith-Shawver shaking out his arm following his last two pitches. Smith-Shawver wanted to continue, but when he told Snitker he felt a pop, his day was over.
And so was his season.
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