Exclusive: John Smoltz talks Braves, N.L. Race, Blue Jays and Golf
Posted on: June 2, 2026, 07:28h.
Last updated on: June 2, 2026, 07:58h.
John Smoltz is regarded as one of the best pitchers of all time.
The former NL Cy Young winner starred for the Atlanta Braves for essentially his entire career, from 1988 until 2008. He played one season outside of Atlanta in 2009 with the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.
Smoltz didn’t just excel as a starter, but as a closer during the latter half of his career. The Hall of Fame pitcher notched 200 wins and 150 saves during his career, becoming the Braves’ closer after his recovery from Tommy John surgery in the early 2000s.
The 59-year-old took the time to sit down for a one-on-one interview to talk about the Braves’ early season success, how they rank among the contenders and his preparation for the biggest celebrity golf event in the American Century Championship, which takes place from July 10 through 12th and will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock.
The Braves — who have the best record in Major League Baseball at 38-19 — are off to an excellent start. Smoltz said the key moving forward is remaining healthy, something that they weren’t able to do last season when they started out the year 0-9.
“It’s all health,” Smoltz told Casino.org in an exclusive interview. “Their ability to stay healthy is going to be how they navigate the National League, which is loaded with teams. If they can keep their pitching staff healthy, they’re going to be right there and can beat anybody. That’s the problem, though. Last year was a perfect storm. They were not able to be healthy and they started the season 0-9. The opposite has happened this year. So quite different between the two extremes, and somewhere in the middle is what the Atlanta Braves can be.”
The pitching has been incredible with Chris Sale and Bryce Elder leading the way. Sale is one of the NL Cy Young favorites at the age of 37, registering a 1.89 ERA (third in the NL) and seven wins (second in the NL). Meanwhile, Elder is off to a strong start after a down year last season. Elder has a 2.50 ERA after posting a 5.30 ERA last season.
While the pitching has been extremely strong and arguably their biggest strength, Smoltz hammers home the ability for the Braves to remain healthy when it comes to their position players.
“They’ve got to keep their position players healthy,” Smoltz said. “That was something they didn’t do last year. When they had the historic great offensive season (in 2021), everyone thought this was the model, that they cracked the code. There’s no way to duplicate that. It was a historic baseball year, and they benefited from a lot of factors. Now they have to stay healthy. They have the roster that can compete with anybody, but that roster can’t take injury after injury after injury.”
Smoltz: Dodgers still the team to beat
Smoltz is high on the Braves and repeatedly brings up health as a main factor for how far this Atlanta squad can go. When asked if Atlanta has what it takes to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers — the defending back-to-back World Series champs — Smoltz said “absolutely.”
But the Hall of Fame pitcher still gives the nod to the Dodgers as the favorites.
“There’s a lot of dangerous teams in the National League, and one of those is the Atlanta Braves,” Smoltz said. “The others: the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies. San Diego’s got one of the best bullpens ever. So there’s a lot of components that are going to come into play for the National League.
“I think right now the healthiest team is the Atlanta Braves. But to say what the future holds, the Dodgers have assimilated the best roster all together. And in that case, I kind of give a nod to the Dodgers based on their roster. But it’s still up in the air based on all the other components. It’s going to be hard-pressed to accumulate the kind of roster that they did, unless you make some trades. They’ve definitely got the head start over the rest of the teams.”
Smoltz: I expect Blue Jays to make playoffs
When shifting gears to the defending AL champions, the Toronto Blue Jays, the team is off to a slow start. They’re currently below .500 through the first one-third of the season and are dealing with injuries, such as to key starter Dylan Cease.
However, closer Louis Varland has been one of the strong points of the team, registering a 0.31 ERA through the early portion of the season. Smoltz still believes the Jays will bounce back and make a playoff run.
“I have not seen him pitch (too much) and I haven’t covered him yet, so haven’t seen that aspect yet,” Smoltz said. “But the Blue Jays look like they’re rounding back in shape after what was an incredible year before. They’ve had their share of injuries, and I still think they’re a team that is going to be in the playoffs before it’s all said and done.”
Smoltz said the Cease injury is going to test the Blue Jays.
“Every injury is a factor, especially when you’re talking about a starter, and this has been the byproduct of what baseball has established,” Smoltz said. “They don’t have answers to it. So, when you don’t have answers to it, you have to deal with whatever comes down the pike, and what’s coming down the pike for most major league teams is if you don’t have eight or nine starters to get through the season, you’re not getting through the season. You’re not going to have a successful campaign.
“So that’s what teams, unfortunately, are trying to figure out. How do I create depth instead of how do I create the ability to stay healthy? That has never been a priority, and until that changes, we’re going to have this for the rest of my life.”
Smoltz talks American Century Championship, U.S. Senior Open qualifying
While the MLB season is in its early stages, Smoltz is preparing for the American Century Championship, an annual celebrity golf event he’s participated in for years. The former Braves pitcher has finished second multiple times but has never won the event.
“Well, on this side it’s everything,” said Smoltz of the golf event. “When you think about a calendar time of year that I lock in, I want nothing to get in the way of this event. It’s special. The invite is special. It’s hard to get and I’m not taking it for granted. I love everything about it. Time of year, the venue, obviously the cause of American Century, and what we do is second to none. And let’s face it, it’s competition. It’s an elite tournament. I definitely want to win the tournament, that’s been my mindset forever, and I’ve come close, but I haven’t done it.”
When asked who is the best young golfer in the tournament, Smoltz quickly points to Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who has won the event before.
“The best young golfer, and who’s active and in great shape, and certainly has the ability to play the game, obviously, Steph Curry is one of those players,” Smoltz said. “Steph had a dramatic win over Mardy Fish, Joe Pavelski. When it comes down to it, there’s a lot of people that have a chance to win it, but Tony Romo, Annika Sörenstam. It’s a matter of basically being able to navigate those greens and understand what you’ve got to do based on the point system to get it done.”
Smoltz just advanced to the final stage of qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open, something he did in 2018. The 59-year-old hopes to accomplish the feat again beginning in Jupiter, Florida at The Bears Club on June 3.
“I want to see where I can take golf,” Smoltz said. “This is the challenge before me. I’ve done it once. It’s one of the hardest things there is to do in golf, and I want to be able to show that once was not a fluke. I’ve got one more round to prove it, and hopefully I can do that on my end. But it’s going to take a really, really good golf round against a lot of really, really good players. My game is rounding into shape, but it only matters when you tee it up that day.”
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