The biggest surprise from the first half of the Braves season

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MLB: MAY 20 Padres at Braves Game 1

We made it to the All-Star break, and the Braves finished the first half of the season with a series win over the Padres and 11 games over .500, but all eyes are on the trade deadline for fans.

As Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend! Let’s finish recapping the season thus far. I went negative first, with Matt Olson being Atlanta’s biggest disappointment through the first half, so we move to the biggest surprise.

You could go in a number of directions with this one. The Braves welcomed several offseason acquisitions that have shocked fans. Jarred Kelenic had an impressive stretch there for a bit but is right around where he sat last year with the Mariners.

Chris Sale‘s resurgence has been nothing short of remarkable. If the season ended today, he’d likely win his first-ever Cy Young, but injuries were the only thing standing in his way. Red Sox and some Braves fans, like Chase, saw this kind of production coming as long as he stayed healthy. It’s not the most surprising first-half performance.

Spencer Schwellenbach‘s emergence deserves praise too. Nobody had him locking down the fifth spot in the rotation coming into the season. He’s coming off two outings against the Phillies and Padres in which he totaled 13 innings of two-run ball. The Nebraska product owns a 4.43 ERA, but his 3.43 FIP suggests he’s been much better than that figure.

However, this isn’t even a debate. The biggest surprise of the first half of the Brave season is Reynaldo Lopez. He posted a 4.64 ERA over 65 starts for the White Sox from 2018-19 then transitioned to a relief role during the 2021 campaign, with his most productive stretch when he posted a 3.02 ERA over 129 appearances with the White Sox, Angels, and Guardians from 2022-23.

Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves then inked Lopez to a three-year, $30 million contract in hopes of stretching him back out as a starter. He hadn’t thrown more than 66 innings in each of the past two seasons and hadn’t been a starter since 2019. It was a Hail Mary.

I don’t even think the Braves thought it would turn out like it did. Lopez owns a 1.88 ERA through 17 starts, the best ERA in baseball. Even the most optimistic people couldn’t have guessed the experiment would work out this successfully.
Reynaldo Lopez’s All-Star campaign is by far the most shocking performance for the Braves thus far.

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Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire

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