The Atlanta Braves will be heading to San Deigo to take on the Padres in a best-of-three Wild Card series and they will be doing it without their ace on the mound.

Chris Sale is expected to be unavailable for Atlanta due to back spasms which the media learned about in the 40-minute break between games one and two of their doubleheader against the Mets on Monday.

“[Sale] is crushed,” Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said. “There was a little bit of, ‘Should he go out there or not?’ But ultimately at the end of the day, if you’re not at your best and you don’t ultimately believe you can help your team and you can hurt yourself, it’s not a good outcome across the board.”

It was expected that Sale would start Game Two of the doubleheader if the Braves needed a win to clinch a postseason berth which ended up being the case.

However, after Sale informed the team early Monday that his back could be an issue Atlanta turned to Grant Holmes to start game two just a day after throwing 21 pitches in the Braves game against the Royals on Sunday.

After the doubleheader, Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker all but confirmed that Sale would be out for the Wild Card round.

“We’re hoping, with some more rest, we can get him right and get to the next round,” Snitker said.

Missing Sale will be a big loss for the Braves after his breakout season which will likely end with the NL CY Young award.

Sale won the pitching triple crown after going 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177.2 innings pitched.

Ian Anderson, AJ Smith-Shawver, and Bryce Elder are the likely candidates to start game one of Atlanta’s Wild Card series with the Padres.

Anderson has not pitched in the MLB since the 2022 season while Smith Shawver and Elder have started a combined 11 games this season.

Whether or not the Braves want to take the risk of throwing Ian Anderson is the big question that remains to be answered.

Bryce Elder seems to be the most worthy candidate after his All-Star season in 2023 and ten starts in the big leagues this season.