Saturday seeds: Bryce Elder's struggles, Braves not ready to option Harris, and Acuña's All-Star Week

Here's some of the news and notes you might have missed from this week

Our Saturday Seeds news roundup is presented by Chinook Seedery - for bigger and better sunflower seeds in both regular and unique flavors, check out Chinook Seedery and use promo code “Braves” for 10% off your order!

Not a great stretch for Elder

Atlanta’s series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies had a two-hour and nineteen-minute rain delay, finally starting at 9:34 PM.

But Bryce Elder never really got going.

Elder was lifted in the third inning despite having not yet recorded an out in the frame, with a final line of 2+ IP, eight hits, ten runs (nine earned), and four walks to only two strikeouts. He allowed three homers, including a three-run shot to Otto Kemp in the 3rd inning that finally pulled the plug on his day.

Per Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Elder’s just the third Braves pitcher to get tagged for nine or more runs over two innings or less. That full list:

• Aaron Blair 1.1 IP, 9 ER at PIT 5/17/2016 (Brian Snitker's first game as manager)

• Taylor Phillips 1 IP, 9 ER at Brooklyn 7/15/1957. (Phillips entered in the eighth inning of a 20-4 loss.)

Breaking out an old chestnut from the podcast here…

Two things can be true at once. Elder’s starting routine was disrupted, as he finished warmups and the tarp went on the field just minutes before game time. Atlanta didn’t help things by switching to a bullpen game, like Philadelphia did, meaning Elder had to sit around for over two hours, warm up again, and then try to pitch while rain was still falling. It’s tough to be particularly sharp in those conditions.

At the same time, it’s not the first blowup by Elder this season. Since his dominant start in San Francisco on June 7th, one that saw him allow just one run on three hits across eight innings with no walks and twelve strikeouts, he’s allowed 18 earned runs in his last 10.2 innings, walking eight (against only six strikeouts) and giving up five homers. It’s resulted in an unsightly 5.82 ERA on the season.

And as we’ve discussed at length ever since Chris Sale went down, there are not a lot of other options out there to insert in the rotation in Elder’s place. Not a great place to be for the Atlanta Braves.

We saw some substitutions, but just temporarily

Given the nature of the blowout and the wet conditions, Atlanta made some substitutions during the course of Friday night’s game. Stuart Fairchild checked in for Ronald Acuña Jr. in the bottom of the third, while Eli White replaced Michael Harris II in the bottom of the ninth and promptly singled for Atlanta’s ninth and final hit of the day.

White is clearly the backup in centerfield for Harris, and I discussed earlier this week how he likely can come close to Michael’s level of defensive production thanks to his exceptional athletic tools. But don’t expect a move just yet. As The Athletic’s David O’Brien wrote, discussing the organization’s feelings on optioning Harris, “They aren’t ready to make that move, at least not yet, in part because they don’t think they have a better option to play center, considering what Harris brings defensively.”

I’m sorry, but that’s absurd. Yes, no one’s going to play centerfield as well as Harris does. But the overall value of the player can be higher if they can actually produce something at the plate. In the month of June, Harris is batting .148 with a .426 OPS, having more strikeouts (25) than hits (13) and RBI (10) combined. He’s also back to his groundout ways, entering Friday with 2.47 groundouts for every flyball out in the month. In the last 14 games, it’s a .102 average and .302 OPS and just .043 with a .132 OPS in his last seven games.

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Acuña to be centerpiece of All-Star Weekend

We got two different All-Star-related bits of news about Ronald this week.

The first is his status as the #3 vote-getter in the outfield for the National League at 1.9M votes in the first round of voting. He’s behind only LA’s Teoscar Hernandez (2.3M votes) and Chicago’s Pete Crow-Armstrong (3.02M votes). The vote totals will now reset and fans can vote from noon Monday through noon Wednesday next week, with the results being announced Wednesday night. If Ronald gets voted to his fifth starting spot in the Midsummer Classic, he’d join an exclusive list of Braves legends: Hank Aaron and Dale Murphy.

The other news is that Ronald is participating in this year’s Home Run Derby, being announced as the first confirmed entrant. (He’s since been joined by Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.) Speaking to MLB.com after being announced, Ronald explained that it’s the fact that this is his home ballpark and his home fans that made him want to enter this year’s Derby. “I'm super happy to be competing in my third Derby and even more so to be doing it in front of the best fans in baseball, in Braves Country," Acuña said through an interpreter. "It just gives you a tremendous level of confidence from all the fans who are there supporting you."

Braves bullpen catcher José Yépez will serve as Acuña's pitcher for the event, which is being held on July 14th.

Former Braves coach Washington to miss rest of 2025

On Friday afternoon, the Los Angeles Angels announced that manager Ron Washington, who has been away from the team for a week after experiencing shortness of breath and fatigue during a road series in New York, will miss the rest of the season. Bench coach Ray Montgomery was elevated to interim manager for the duration of 2025.

Washington, who was the oldest manager in the league at 73, is in the final guaranteed year of his contract with Los Angeles, leading some to speculate that he may have coached his final game with the franchise.

General manager Perry Minasian declined to elaborate on the nature of Washington’s health issues, explaining “The fortunate part is he knows what he needs to do, and from a health standpoint, he knows how to get better.”

Washington spent seven seasons with Atlanta, from 2017 through 2023, and was instrumental in the organization’s 2021 World Series championship.