The last time the Braves finished a season below .500 was 2017. It seems so long ago. It may have only lasted for a couple years, but from 2014 til 2016 the Braves were a sorry sight, with really only Freddie Freeman guiding them forward. The second they traded Craig Kimbrel right before the beginning of the 2015 season, you knew they were throwing in the towel. Let the kids grow up, focus on replacement level guys like Adonis Garcia and Chris Johnson, and wait for Acuna essentially. Hudson left, Heyward left, the Shelby Miller thing didn't work [though it did net them Dansby Swanson]. It was a dark time. Then 2017 things start to improve, in 2018 Albies and Acuna are up and in full force, and then they compete again. And from 2018 til 2023, the Braves are a first place team. Only one ring to show for it, but they had a stranglehold on the East, and some truly terrific teams. Then Freeman left, the Phils got good, and they weren't the only ones anymore.
So the fact that we've reached a season, even without much atrophy, where the Braves will finish under .500, and in fourth as it's looking, is pretty incredible. This is still, on paper, a very good team, and nobody too crucial has left. There is a conversation to be had about the quality of the people that were extended, like Michael Harris and Sean Murphy and Reynaldo Lopez and Jurickson Profar, and how they may not beg as integral as they were supposed to be when they signed. Lopez has been out all year, Profar missed half the year with a drug suspension trying to get his wife pregnant [it worked!], Murph is out for the rest of the season, and Harris...is infuriatingly mid. He's a .240 hitter, strikes out 125 times a year, decent defensively. The x factor of his rookie year hasn't been there, he's just...a perfectly fine player who has some good days.
And the guys who are actively aiding this team while contracted...they're fine. With Matt Olson they've got nothing to be upset about, he's got a 5+ WAR year under his belt and is looking at 25+ homers. Ozzie Albies has been wildly inconsistent this year. For months he failed to really do anything, and he's finishing the season with an average year, .241 average, .677 OPS. He played in every game, which is nice, but this team needed somebody like him to truly step up with Acuna out half the year, and in response he was...fine. Not earth-shattering. Marcell Ozuna was also pretty average this year, but in fairness he's 34.
What really killed this Braves team was the pitching thing. Spencer Schellenbach gets off to an awesome start. Then he gets injured. Then Chris Sale becomes untouchable, then he gets injured. Then Grant Holmes finally figures out how to start in the majors, then HE gets injured. Somehow the only guy who hasn't gotten hurt has been Bryce Elder, but he's still kinda struggling. Sale's return has helped, as has the revitalization of Hurston Waldrep. The big thing the Braves have been doing this year has been picking up DFA targets. Erick Fedde, Cal Quantrill, Alexis Diaz, Jake Fraley and Ha-Seong Kim have all seen time with the Braves since the break, and most are just here to fill innings. Kim's pretty legit though.
The Braves' hope is that the awful luck that befell them this year does not carry over to 2026, and that the immovables lead them back to contention. We'll see how many of this year's problems persist, though.
Coming Tomorrow- Just because you're the ideal athlete body type doesn't mean you're gonna be a top tier player. Not everyone's Steve Garvey. Sometimes you're built like a brick shithouse and all you can really do is play the outfield kinda well.
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