Braves reportedly attempting to outbid Mets, Phillies, Padres for $38M All-Star amid injury news originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Atlanta Braves are in a tough spot when it comes to starting pitching, just one year removed from battling the injury bug throughout the entire season. The most recent blow to the rotation came Sunday, when the Braves announced that Hurston Waldrep is undergoing testing due to arm discomfort.

“The Atlanta Braves' rotation took another hit Sunday when manager Walt Weiss said right-hander Hurston Waldrep may need surgery to remove "loose bodies" found in his arm. Waldrep complained of discomfort after throwing batting practice. Weiss said an MRI showed no ligament damage, but the team is waiting to learn more after Waldrep has additional tests,” ESPN wrote.

The injury concerns began on the first day of Spring Training, when Spencer Schwellenbach announced he would start the season on the 60-day injured list. It was not the start anyone in the Braves organization was hoping for.

“The Braves opened camp this morning with an unwelcome update on talented young righty Spencer Schwellenbach. He’s been placed on the 60-day injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com. The team’s hope is that the 25-year-old is dealing with bone spurs and not something more nefarious,” MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams wrote.

With these injuries already piling up, the Braves are now trying to make one last push for Lucas Giolito, one of the final remaining starters in free agency.

“Per league sources, Lucas Giolito’s market is gaining momentum toward a deal, likely this week. Atlanta and San Diego Padres have intensified their pursuit and moved to the forefront of discussions. The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets have also remained in contact dating back to the Winter Meetings,” MLB reporter Julian Scott wrote.

The Braves appear to be going all-in on Giolito following the recent injury news involving Schwellenbach and Waldrep. Atlanta needs to land a starting pitcher who is at least somewhat appealing on the current market.

Tension is already building in Atlanta. If a move isn’t made quickly, the season could be in jeopardy before it even begins. And if the Braves continue to strike out, they may be forced to roll with what they have until the season progresses.

More MLB news:

• Braves predicted to sign $10M 2-time Cy Young winner, 2-time World Series champion, 8X All-Star

• Braves reportedly lose $22M Cy Young-caliber arm to Diamondbacks as rotation nightmare grows

• Braves reportedly outbid by Orioles for prized $18M veteran All-Star with major ties to franchise

• Blue Jays predicted to sign Phillies' $20M reject, Silver Slugger winner after losing Kyle Tucker

• Braves predicted to trade for $77M strikeout monster, sending top prospect to pair with Paul Skenes

• Blue Jays predicted to sign $10M 2-time Cy Young winner, 2-time World Series champion, 8X All-Star

• Dodgers predicted to make MLB unfair by trading Roki Sasaki for $5M Cy Young Winner, 2x All-Star

“One cliche I hear more than any is: ‘Why don’t you go to schools, or do kids for a quid?’

“But that undermines the product — which is elite competition.”

Aston Villa’s managing director Maggie Murphy is talking to The Athletic about the responses she gets when she discusses her job of trying to attract more fans.

Historically, the core selling points of women’s football have been the game’s commitment to inclusivity, its greater accessibility and intimacy with players, its lower ticket prices and sense of safety for children and parents. These points coagulate nicely under the term “family-friendly”.

Two responses to the phrase “family-friendly” are often to either recoil or hug it tightly.

This was a logical marketing strategy for clubs, particularly in the women’s game’s nascent years: presenting themselves as a kind of counter-culture to the historically more expensive and restrictive culture of men’s football.

To be clear, none of these family-friendly attributes should be abandoned.

Yet, in January, Arsenal fans were found sitting freely in the Chelsea home end at Stamford Bridge. After filing a complaint with the club, a Chelsea supporter received an email stating that the true spirit of women’s football was in its inherent inclusivity. Designated home and away ends, apparently, impeded this.

Ignoring that Chelsea’s sentiment is in direct contravention of its own club policies and that it did nothing to halt unsavoury clashes, the club’s decision spotlighted how family-friendly has become a major fissure upon which women’s football has come to rest this season.

While family-friendly embodies the values of inclusivity, equality and accessibility, it has also come to be a byword for diluted sport, something too terrified to alienate anyone that it risks forfeiting its ability to meaningfully connect with anyone.

As the game expands, so does the demographic. Which begs the question: How logical is it to continue hitching oneself so singularly to the family-friendly wagon? At what point is it worth fashioning an identity beyond that, one that differentiates you from the rest of the family-friendly atmospheres out there?

In the WSL, no club has been better at doing that than Arsenal, as shown by regularly selling out the Emirates and shattering domestic attendance records.

But it is a question that other WSL and WSL2 clubs, particularly those whose women’s football journeys lack the heritage of Arsenal or the success of Chelsea, are attempting to wrestle with in real time.

“We should be bigger than we are,” says Sarah Breslin, co-founder of fan group Villa Bellas. “We should have much higher attendances. It’s about capturing that.”

Arriving at Villa in August, Murphy has been tasked with doing just that, from growing attendances to its commercial growth and independent restructuring. Hosting the clubs’ first fans’ forum for the women’s team was the first step, something Breslin admits was an “abnormality” that brought an immediate “culture shift” regarding fan engagement.

“Figuring out our identity is crucial,” she says. “We have to have something to say, to present ourselves in a particular way. ‘Who are Aston Villa? What do we stand for?’”

While Villa’s men’s team are third in the Premier League and have a rich history, the women’s team is more humble. Not until 2019-20 did they win promotion to the English top flight. Their highest-ever WSL finish is fifth in 2022-23.

The views of Villa Women’s identity range from a place for new fans of football to congregate to a connection point for family members to another opportunity to support the club.

Murphy has attempted to build pre-match activities that reflect this.

Sunday’s pre-match fanzone before Villa’s 7-3 WSL defeat to Tottenham Hotspur — which has been held inside Villa Park’s Holte End since January due to the reliability of British weather — included local comedians cracking jokes on stage and pints being poured, while kids found glee in an arcade-style basketball game and a kickabout on a small, makeshift pitch. In a few weeks, former England internationals Karen Carney and Jill Scott will host a live podcast, an event that is nearly sold out.

Earlier this year, Murphy introduced a “12-player challenge”, which featured fans pitching ideas to grow the fanbase, with the winning pitch voted on by a panel of Murphy and three players receiving funds from the club to help bring the ideas to life. The winning bid will see the creation of a mini fan-docuseries as well as women’s team song sheets.

“I’m trying to create the club environment that I wish existed when I was going to games as a fan, which is being accessible to everyone, but not limiting,” Murphy says.

Of course, that doesn’t mean tens of thousands are flocking to Villa Park. Sunday’s match against Spurs attracted just over 2,500 inside the 42,640-seater Villa Park.

The temptation is to dwell on that. Before the 2025-26 season, there was a focus on the 10 per cent drop in attendances (down 7,361 to 6,661) from the previous season, according to Women’s Sport Trust (WST) data. There was a notion that the 2025-26 WSL season could not afford to follow suit, especially after another European Championship victory for England.

Over the first six match rounds, however, the average WSL attendance was 6,500, a one per cent decline from the corresponding period last season, according to WST.

Yet, there are challenges beyond Murphy and others’ control, such as results on the pitch (Villa have lost four of their last five matches) and kick-off times.

Since September, WSL matches have been almost exclusively wedded to a largely 11.55am or 12pm Sunday slot on Sky Sports, a point of chagrin to several clubs who are attempting to grow attendances via pre-match activations.

“Then you’re asking talent to perform at 10.30 in the morning ahead of a 12pm kick-off,” says Murphy. “Kids and their parents have Sunday morning football. We’re trying to work with the universities, but university students coming out here at 10.30 on a Sunday morning? Probably not. So who are we going for? Mates that want to get together for a beer? At 10:30 in the morning?

“The data we know around women’s football fandom is that people like to make a day of it. We know that people spend more money per head than fans of men’s sport. But we’re almost cutting off our hands.”

Murphy does not blame WSL Football for the time slots, which are ultimately decided by Sky Sports and BBC, whom the WSL signed a historic £65million five-year deal with before the season.

Murphy is not alone in attempting to unravel the riddle that is growing attendances. The growing consensus around the league is that Arsenal’s success is as much a function of investment and careful curation as time. Growth has never been linear. It requires patience and building a discernible identity.

And for all the activations she can provide, Murphy knows identity is predicated on the football itself.

“Women’s football is a product on the pitch as well,” she says. “I want people to have a great day regardless of what happens on the pitch. But that only works for the people who regularly come. The people who have not come yet are not necessarily going to come to a football game just because we’ve got a live podcast on.

“But you have to trust your North Star,” she adds. “Match experiences can be really flat in women’s football. I want Villa to be the heart of the WSL, right in the middle of the country.

“We don’t want people to be driving past the motorway and not coming to Villa Park. They need to be coming here because they want to be here, because they’re having a great time.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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