Ozzie Hits Homers Now

 

10 homers for Ozzie Albies so far. For the record, Austin Riley has 7, Marcell Ozuna has 8 and Eddie Rosario has 5. But Ozzie Albies, the mostly contact-centric Brave who, while a 30-homer man in the past, has led the league in hits...has TEN.

I'm not sure if this says more about the Braves in general or just Ozzie. Albies has always been a great player, and a cool asset for these building Braves teams to have lately. To be honest, Albies' best seasons were before the pandemic, and he peaked with a great year in 2019, with the years since being either just not as good or injury prone. Last year, he got hurt with a good chunk of the year left to go, causing Vaughn Grissom's promotion in August. This year, the tables turned slightly, with second base being pretty tightly-packed and shortstop being the more competitive position this year [between Arcia, Grissom and Shewmake]. Even without Dansby Swanson as his double-play partner, he's still been an excellent infielder and trusted presence.

But...he hits homers now. He just does. 

It's always gonna weird me out when a career contact hitter suddenly starts hitting for power. It was weird when Luis Gonzalez became the power hitter he's remembered for. It was bizarre when Salvador Perez became the homer guy he is now. And this Ozzie Albies business is a little weird. Not completely un-called for, as, again, he was part of the all-30-homer infield from 2021, but...strange.

And even as the Braves continue to do well, there are still strange elements to this team. This is a team with two catchers, Murphy and D'Arnaud, that are both playing well. This is a team with two 39-year-olds, Morton and Chavez, playing like they're ten years younger. Hell, a lot of the bullpen is made up of several people in their mid to late 30s that feel like strange cases- Michael Tonkin came back from International leagues, Lucas Luetge found his stuff after a half a decade away, Kirby Yates has been injured for 2 or 3 years now, and Jesse Chavez is Jesse Chavez. 

The Braves are likely to keep surging, as so many stars are succeeding, and the closest competitor, the Mets, are only winning games by small margins. If Albies can not only do what he's been doing since coming up, but do it while hitting home runs, there's a lot more versatility we're gonna see from them going forward.

Coming Tonight: Saw this guy sign a ton of autographs for kids in Spring Training. As if I didn't already love him.