NORTH PORT, Fla. — The Atlanta Braves received more unwelcomed news on Sunday.
Manager Walt Weiss announced that pitcher Hurston Waldrep may need a procedure to clean up his elbow.
Channel 2’s Alison Mastrangelo is covering Braves spring training, which started on Tuesday in North Port, Florida. She watched Waldrep throw in a live batting practice the other day as the pitcher topped out at speeds of 99 mph.
Weiss confirmed on Sunday that Waldrep felt some pain in his throwing arm and a MRI revealed “loose bodies” in his elbow. It’s likely he will need some type of a procedure to clean things up.
“There’s some things in there that shouldn’t be there, I guess. I think it’s fairly common with pitchers. I don’t want to elaborate on the loose bodies because I’m not totally sure, but probably needs to be dealt with. I don’t know what that looks like as far as a procedure or anything like that,” Weiss told Mastrangelo.
Waldrep is scheduled to meet with Dr. Keith Meister, who has performed surgeries on his teammates Spencer Strider and AJ Smith-Shawver.
The news comes after the Braves already announced that Spencer Schwellenbach, whose 2025 season was cut short by an elbow injury, would miss significant time.
The team placed him on the 60-day injured list as he needs surgery to remove bone spurs.
Schwellenbach was expected to come back into the Braves starting rotation and Waldrep, who showed promise in 2025, was competing for more permanent spot in the rotation.
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