The Braves officially have a claim to the worst offense in baseball

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MLB: JUL 21 Braves at Brewers

The Braves haven’t just been bad offensively. They have been the worst offense in baseball for quite some time now.

Following an off-day, the Braves had the opportunity to flush the last few series out of their system and start over. That’s the great part about the 162-game season. Max Fried was set to toe the rubber on Tuesday night, and there were vibes of excitement to play the team with the third-best record in Major League Baseball.

Unfortunately, from the very first four at-bats, the Braves showed exactly why they have been the worst team at producing runs for going on seven weeks. Michael Harris II led off the game with a triple that just missed leaving the yard. It set up the perfect opportunity for a fresh start, or a reminder of the nightmare this season has quickly become offensively.

Ozzie Albies followed Harris with a groundout to shortstop. The infield was playing in, so there was no opportunity for Harris to advance. Austin Riley then struck out, which was followed by a weak pop-out to first base off the bat of Matt Olson. Just like that, the inning was over, with the Braves wasting a golden opportunity to take an early lead.

That set the tone for the entire night. The Braves finished the evening 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position on their way to being shutout for the second time this season. Atlanta is now 10 games back of the first-place Philadelphia Phillies, but winning the division doesn’t even feel like it should be at the forefront of anyone’s mind. As of right now, the Braves don’t even look like a playoff team.

The pitching has been on par with the best in baseball, but Atlanta’s offense now has the fewest runs of any team dating back to April 24th.

In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t imagine this would be a topic of discussion just a year after having arguably the most dominant offense in the modern era. Regression? Sure, but this is a full seven-week stretch where the Braves have been the most pathetic lineup in baseball by nearly every metric, including the most important one — runs.

We can talk about injuries, poor luck, or dead baseballs, but the problems extend much deeper than that. This is a feeble offense from top to bottom, one that strikes out too much and refuses to make adjustments in critical situations. It’s home run or die with every guy that steps up to the plate. They might get better as the season continues because it’s quite literally impossible to be worse than they have been over the last seven weeks, but nothing substantial is really going to change until adjustments are made, both in approach and personnel.

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Photo: Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire

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