Despite finishing the first half of the season 11 games over .500, the Braves didn’t meet expectations, but change is on the horizon as the trade deadline looms.
Alex Anthopoulos will surely be wheeling and dealing with so many holes to fill, and that alone should provide a tremendous boost to a club that feels like it needs an injection of life. However, that won’t be enough on its own.
If the Braves want to win a second World Series in four years, these are the keys to success for the second half of the season.
Status Quo
Of course, the Braves stars have to continue to perform. I’m looking at Austin Riley (as of late), Marcell Ozuna, Max Fried, Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Raisel Iglesias, AJ Minter, Pierce Johnson, and Joe Jimenez. Those guys have to keep their impressive campaigns going if the Braves are to have any chance in October.
Health
This is true for just about every club, but it’s especially true in Atlanta. Without Ronald Acuna Jr. and Spencer Strider, the Braves can’t afford to go down another star player. Hell, they can’t really afford to lose a supplementary piece either.
Michael Harris II is expected back soon, while AJ Smith-Shawver and Ian Anderson work their way back from injury as well. The Braves need depth, and it’ll be improved at the trade deadline, but losing any critical piece for an extended period of time could prove detrimental to their World Series hopes.
Orlando Arcia
Alright, let’s get into the individuals that need to turn it around. The Braves don’t need Orlando Arcia to be the All-Star that he was in the first half of last season; they just need him to not be the worst player in baseball.
He ended the first half on the right foot, smashing a two-run home run apart of a 2-for-3 effort at the plate in Atlanta’s 6-1 win over the Padres on Friday before the All-Star break. The homer ended a lengthy drought, as he had gone 29 games since his last multi-hit performance and his last home run.
During that slump, the shortstop hit just .147 with four doubles and two RBIs. That kind of production is unacceptable. Again, the Braves don’t need him to be a hero, just not a .577 OPS kind of hitter.
Ozzie Albies
With Ronald Acuna Jr. out, the Braves need Ozzie Albies to step up. Asking him to repeat his 2023 campaign, which was the best of his career, seems like a tall order, but league average production (100 wRC+) isn’t going to cut it. The Braves need their stars to perform as such, and Albies is a big part of that. He’s below his career average in every major offensive statistic; even getting it back to his career norms would be beneficial, but we know he’s capable of even more.
Matt Olson
Nobody has underperformed expectations for the Braves like Matt Olson has this season. He led all of baseball in home runs (54) and RBIs (139) and led the National League in slugging percentage (.604) en route to a fourth-place finish in the MVP vote.
He finished with career-bests in batting average (.283), on-base percentage (.389), slugging (.604), OPS (.993), home runs (54), and RBIs (139).
Now, the script has flipped, and he’s amid the worst season of his career. Outside of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Olson has career-low marks in batting average (.229), on-base percentage (.309), slugging percentage (.405), and OPS (.714). For the first time ever, he’s a below-league-average hitter per wRC+ (98).
Through 95 games, one of the best sluggers in all of baseball only has 13 home runs, putting him on pace for around 23 homers on the year. That would again be a career-low. He’s striking out more and walking less. Olson has struck out 109 times compared to just 36 walks while striking out 167 times and walking 104 times last year.
The good news is that Matt Olson is a much better player than he’s been so far this year. For the Braves to accomplish their ultimate goal, they’ll need their best players to play like they’re capable of, and that applies to nobody more than Olson.
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Photographer: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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