The Braves are a couple of days away from beginning their journey to the 2023 World Series. On Wednesday, I talked about the Braves who have performed well over their postseason careers. If you want to check that out, follow the link below. Today, I’ll be looking at the guys who haven’t lived up to expectations in October.
Braves Postseason Underperformers
Albies cemented himself as a top-three second baseman in the game after missing most of the 2022 season with injury, including the playoffs. The consistency he provides year after year for the Braves is unmatched, but that hasn’t been the case in the postseason. He has a decent .255 average in the playoffs, but his power numbers are way down compared to where they typically are in the regular season. He has just three homers in 37 games to go along with a .660 OPS. Coming off a regular season in which he set a career-high in home runs with 33, hopefully, Albies can flash some of that power this October.
Riley very well may have finished his third straight season in which he will finish inside the top 10 of the NL MVP voting. He has become one of the most consistent power hitters in all of baseball but in the postseason? It’s been a bit inconsistent. Riley did perform well during the Braves World Series run in 2021 with the stick, but overall, he’s hitting just .216 with three homers over 32 games.
Like most Braves in last year’s divisional round, Michael Harris struggled, recording just one hit in 14 at-bats in his first taste of postseason baseball. Expect him to have a much bigger impact this time around.
It’s not even fair to include Strider in this piece, given what transpired last year. Coming off an oblique injury, he attempted to make his first start back and was nowhere closer to 100%, allowing five earned runs over just 2.1 innings. However, because he’ll be going up against the same team, I had to bring his name up. Can a much healthier version of Strider be the key to the Braves getting revenge on their NL East foes?
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Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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