In three days, the Braves will take the field at Truist Park for Game 1 of the NLDS. If you’re like me, the nerves are already beginning to set in. There is no feeling in sports quite like postseason baseball. Living and dying with every pitch for three hours is an unexplainable feeling that only baseball fans will understand.
The postseason also has an effect on the players. Some guys are regular season MVPs but fail to show up year after year in October. Then there are guys who will never take home a regular season award but consistently have their impact felt when the lights are the brightest.
Braves Postseason Performers
Matt Olson’s first taste of postseason baseball came with the Athletics. Early on, there wasn’t much success, but in his only two Divisional Series, Olson has four homers across 33 at-bats. He was one of the few Braves bats that actually showed up last season in the team’s loss to the Phillies.
Arcia is undoubtedly the weakest bat in the Braves lineup, but he is amid a career year and has some pretty spectacular postseason numbers, hitting .276 with five homers in 26 games — good for an .857 OPS.
Who can forget the magic that Eddie Rosario provided in the NLCS back in 2021? He racked up 14 hits in the series with three homers and nine RBIs on his way to MVP honors. Since then, Rosario has been rather quiet, but nobody would be shocked if he delivered several iconic moments for Braves fans in 2023.
Not every MVP rises to the occasion in October, but Ronald Acuna Jr. isn’t your average MVP. He has three homers and nine RBIs in 25 postseason games to go along with a .863 OPS.
Hopefully, Charlie Morton heals up in time for the NLCS because he has been money in October, owning a 3.60 ERA over 18 games.
Kyle Wright owns a 3.93 ERA in the postseason, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. In one outing back in 2020, he gave up seven earned runs in 0.2 innings. Outside of that, he’s given up just one earned run over 17.2 innings. He could have a much bigger role in October than many anticipate.
Like most of the Braves, Minter had a postseason to forget in 2022. But even with that, he owns a 3.18 ERA, 0.882 WHIP, and 13.9 K/9 in the playoffs. There’s not a reliever I trust more in October with the ball in his hands than Minter.
Old reliable, Jesse Chavez has been around baseball for about as long as I’ve been alive; however, he didn’t get his first taste of postseason ball until 2018 with the Cubs. Over 10 playoff appearances, Chavez has only allowed two runs, good for a 1.69 ERA.
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Photo: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire
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