The Braves featured arguably the greatest lineup in the history of baseball last year.
The offense produced franchise marks in runs, RBIs, OPS, home runs, OPS+, and slugging percentage; in fact, Atlanta became the first team to slug north of .500 to go along with some pretty special individual accomplishments. Ronald Acuna Jr. became the first player in history to record 40 home runs and 70 steals while Matt Olson set the franchise record for homers and RBIs.
The Braves’ 124 OPS+ ranks third all-time behind the 1931 (125) and 1927 (127) Yankees. Plus, their 307 home runs matched the 2019 Twins for the most in MLB history.
And nearly every piece of that lineup is returning. The only difference is left field. Eddie Rosario and Kevin Pillar’s production will be replaced by some combination of Jarred Kelenic and Vaughn Grissom. Suffice to say, it’ll once again be one of the best offenses in baseball.
However, Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com sees Atlanta’s top trio as the second-best in the league, behind Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers duo that finished in the top three of MVP voting last year — Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.
2. Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson & Austin Riley (Braves)
This was the only trio of teammates to finish in the top 10 in MLB in extra-base hits last season, combining for 236. (Freeman, Betts and Ohtani combined for 248, in case you were wondering, but obviously weren’t teammates yet.) Acuña’s historic 41-homer, 73-steal season took some attention away from Olson setting a new Braves record with 54 homers and Riley turning in his third straight season with more than 30 homers, 30 doubles, 90 RBIs and 300 total bases.
With three other guys who had 50+ extra-base hits (Marcell Ozuna, Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II) in 2023, the Braves still might have claim to the title of Best Lineup in Baseball, even after the Ohtani news. But we’ll save that subject for another day.
Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman are a better trio than Acuna, Olson, and Riley, but it’s not as big of a landslide as many Los Angeles fans might think. All six of those players are legitimate MVP candidates. However, what separates Atlanta’s lineup from even the Ohtani-Dodgers is the lack of drop-off at all nine spots. Even LA doesn’t hold a candle to Atlanta’s 1-9 because few teams have a career .295 batter hitting ninth like Michael Harris.
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Photographer: John Adams/Icon Sportswire
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