KISSIMMEE, FLA. ? The Atlanta Braves entered the offseason with their starting rotation in shambles.

Jaret Wright, Russ Ortiz and Paul Byrd were free agents. Mike Hampton and Horacio Ramirez needed surgery. John Thomson had a piercing pain in his side.

But, as always, the Braves managed to come up with another set of aces.

And this one might be their best yet.

It starts with the old and the new — John Smoltz, moving back to the rotation after three years as the closer, and Tim Hudson, heisted from the budget-conscious Oakland Athletics.

On the health front, Hampton and Ramirez seem to have recovered from their time in the operating room, while Thomson’s pulled oblique muscle fully has healed.

“We decided to go back to the old-fashioned Braves’ way — dominate with pitching,” general manager John Schuerholz said.

The Braves will go into the new season with two former 20-game winners at the top of the rotation and three other guys who seem fully capable of putting up 15 wins or more.

“From top to bottom, this is the best I’ve ever been on,” said Hudson, who was part of Oakland’s “Big Three” with Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. “There’s not a typical No. 5 guy in the rotation. I don’t know if we have a 4 or 5 on this team. That’s pretty good when you can say that. Most teams struggle to find a 1, 2 and 3.”

Atlanta pitcher Tim Hudson throws batting practice during a spring training workout. Hudson, shown Feb. 28 in Kissimmee, Fla., is the newest addition to a Braves rotation that could rival the great Atlanta staffs of the 1990s.

If everybody can stay healthy — a big if — the Braves should have a rotation that rivals any of those from their run of 13 straight division titles.

For a team that’s had everyone from Greg Maddux to Tom Glavine, that’s no small feat.

In 1991, the first year of their record-setting run, the Braves sent Glavine (20-11), Steve Avery (18-8), Charlie Liebrandt (15-13) and Smoltz (14-13) to the mound on a regular basis. Two years later, the rotation consisted of Glavine (22-6), Maddux (20-10), Avery (18-8) and Smoltz (15-11). But neither of those teams had a solid fifth starter.

The gold standard of Atlanta rotations was the 1998 fivesome: Glavine (20-6), Maddux (18-9), Smoltz (17-3), Kevin Millwood (17-8) and Denny Neagle (16-11) led the Braves to a franchise-record 106 wins.

This one has similar potential.

Smoltz, the winningest pitcher in postseason history, spent the last three years as one of baseball’s most dominant closers. But he yearned to return to the starting rotation, getting his wish when the Braves traded for All-Star closer Dan Kolb.

Hudson, signed recently to a four-year contract extension, has a career record of 92-39, giving him the third-best winning percentage (.702) among starters since 1900.

Hampton (13-9, 4.28) and Thomson (14-8, 3.72) are coming off solid seasons, and the 25-year-old Ramirez might be the most intriguing starter of all.

A 12-game winner as a rookie in 2003, Ramirez had a 2.28 earned-run average through his first nine starts last season. But his left shoulder began hurting, and he wound up pitching only one more inning all season. Initially diagnosed with a nerve problem, he eventually underwent surgery for a frayed rotator cuff.

Atlanta pitching coach Leo Mazzone, second from right, watches the field from the bullpen with Braves pitchers John Thomson, left, Mike Hampton, second from left, and Dan Kolb on Feb. 28 in Kissimmee, Fla.

If Ramirez is fully recovered — he says the shoulder feels fine — the Braves are loaded from top to bottom.

“Four of the top five guys are pretty much established major league starters,” catcher Johnny Estrada said, “and Horacio showed at the beginning of last season that he can be a dominant force. If he can stay healthy, we’ll have the best five starters in baseball.”

Ramirez isn’t the only one who goes into the season with health concerns.

Smoltz’s right elbow has gone under the knife four times during the past 11 years, and he hasn’t made it through a full year as a starter since 1999. That was the very reason the Braves moved him to the bullpen in the first place, believing that would extend his pitching life.

“Unfortunately for him, he’s had a cranky elbow,” said Glavine, who now pitches for the New York Mets. “It’s just all how his elbow wants to react. I hope it works out because I know how bad he wants it.”

Hudson bears watching, too. He spent a month on the DL last season because of a pulled side muscle, the result of the exceptional torque he puts on his body with his twisting windup. The Braves aren’t too concerned that it will be a lingering problem, agreeing to a four-year, $47 million contract extension in the early days of spring training.

Hampton finished last season knowing he had torn cartilage in his left knee, but surgery fixed the problem. Thomson was hurt in his final regular-season start, re-injured his side when he tried to pitch in the playoffs and wound up needing seven weeks to fully recover. But he’s never had such an injury before and doesn’t expect it to recur.

“We’re only going to be as good as our health,” Smoltz said. “If we’re healthy, we can be very, very good.”

The Braves hierarchy is reluctant to make comparisons between these starters and those before them.

Pitching coach Leo Mazzone said he looked at every group separately, though he concedes that the current rotation has a chance to be more dominating that last year’s.

“Those guys were blue-collar,” Mazzone said. “They didn’t put up spectacular numbers, but they got the job done. All they did was win.”

Kolb can’t wait to finish up for this group. He figures to get plenty of save opportunities, considering the five guys who will get things started each game.

“This is the best rotation I’ve ever been associated with,” said Kolb, who spent the last two years with Milwaukee. “We don’t even need everyone to have their best year. If everyone just has a solid year, that should pretty much take us where we need to go.”