Tyler

Mahle

Mahle looks reborn in his two starts since the trade deadline. His fastball and splitter played off each other beautifully here forcing a combined 13 swings-and-misses as he showed pinpoint command of each. He kept the ball away from the Mets’ righties so well and barely threw any pitches in the heart of the plate. Again, his command was simply masterful. This was also the first time he’s completed six innings in consecutive outings all season and he has 16 strikeouts, zero walks, and just one earned run through 12 innings as a Brave. He’s lined up for a two-start week against the Twins and Brewers coming up.

Making his Braves debut on Friday, Mahle went toe-to-toe with Yankees starter Max Fried, striking out a season-high nine batters while tossing six scoreless frames. This is the second time in as many starts that Mahle has struck out nine batters, only this time he didn’t allow five earned runs as we saw in his previous outing. Mahle was acquired from the Giants at this year’s trade deadline and has had an up-and-down year thus far. This outing was far better than we could have expected in a road start against the Yankees. We’ll see if Mahle can have similar success in his next start, which is scheduled for Wednesday at home against the Mets.

The Braves are really just taking on salary here, which in Mahle’s case is about $3 million, and they’re getting guy who has usually been pretty solid when healthy. Mahle has a 5.13 ERA this year, but he’s been better than that lately, posting a 3.79 ERA in his last seven starts. He’s actually throwing a little harder and has a higher strikeout rate (22 percent) than he did last year, when he had a 2.18 ERA in 16 starts for the Rangers. He’ll go into the injured Reynaldo López’s rotation spot for now. He’s still probably just an NL-only guy for fantasy purposes.

Mahle, who is on a one-year, $10 million deal, is 3-9 with a 5.13 ERA for the season, but he has been solid of late, amassing a 3.79 ERA in his last seven turns. Molina is a fringe 40-man roster guy, so this is mostly a salary dump for the Giants. The Giants still figure to trade Robbie Ray, too, and they just lost Trevor McDonald for the rest of the season, so things could get ugly with their rotation the rest of the way. Most likely, Adrian Houser will slide back in as a starter, assuming that no other team wants to take on his contract.

Mahle gave up two runs in the first, two more in the fourth, and another in the sixth without recording an out. The strikeouts are nice. Everything else here isn’t what you’re looking for, and it’s disappointing after his strong six innings of shutout baseball in his previous outing. Assuming he’s still a part of the Giants, he’ll have a chance to rebound against the Tigers on Friday.

That has to be good for a little bump in trade value. Mahle struck out three and walked two in improving to 3-9 with a 4.96 ERA on the season. He’s due to face the Padres on Saturday, but that outing should be considered very tentative with the trade deadline coming two days later. Mahle won’t be any contender’s top target, but he might be able to help a club get to October, even if he won’t be much use then.

Mahle struck out four and walked one in the outing while throwing 65 percent of his pitches for strikes and posting a 10 percent swinging strike rate. He didn’t allow much hard contact, but he also didn’t miss many bats. The good news is that his four-seam fastball was up almost one mph from his season average and actually was fastest in the fifth inning, averaging 93.4 mph. That still doesn’t mean we’d start him next week against the Brewers.

Mahle tossed a scoreless first inning, then gave up a run in the second on a triple and a balk. He’d settle in to give the Giants seven frames of one-run ball, scattering five hits and three walks while striking out four batters. The 31-year-old right-hander holds a 5.35 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, and a 71/32 K/BB ratio at the All-Star break.

This makes back-to-back outings where Mahle was only able to complete 4 1/3 innings, which is less than ideal. The right-hander allowed eight hits, and he struck out five while not issuing a walk. Mahle has been extremely inconsistent in 2026 — despite back-to-back similar starts — and his ERA of 5.70 helps tell the story of the clunkers. He’ll try and get back on the right track with a rematch against the Rockies scheduled for Friday; this time in friendlier confines at home.

It’s pretty much all or nothing from Mahle this year and more of the latter than the former; he’s pitched scoreless ball in four of his 13 starts and given up at least four runs seven times. Just twice has he allowed one, two or three runs. His velocity and strikeout rate are both up a little from last year, so there’s reason to think he’ll be adequate the rest of the way. It’s just hard to expect more than that. He’d due to make his next start Sunday in Colorado.