Atlanta Braves - The Covid-19 Years (2020-2029)

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2020

2023

104

Decade

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Titles:

Top Braves Players of the Twenty Twenties

2020 - Won Division; WC def Reds; NLDS def SD; NLCS Lost LA

2021 - Won Division; NLDS def Milw; NLCS def LA; WS def Hou

Pitchers:

2022 - Won Division; NLDS Lost to Philly

Max Fried (19.17) - 39

2023 - Won Division; NLDS lost to Philly

Charlie Morton (9.7) - 28

2024 - Lost WC to SD

Raisel Iglesias (6.76) - 27

Spencer Strider (8) - 23

BallPark:

Chris Sale (10.1) - 22

Turner Field

Kyle Wright (2.87) - 17

Bryce Elder (2.71) - 13

Team Name:

Ian Anderson (3.85) - 10

Braves

Kenley Jansen (0.88) - 9

Will Smith (0.97) - 9

Owner:

Spencer Schwellenbach (4.9) - 9

Liberty Media

Catchers:

General Managers:

Travis d'Arnaud (5.01) - 22

Alex Anthopolous

Sean Murphy (7.6) - 12

William Contreras (2.89) - 10

Managers:

Drake Baldwin (3.3) - 9

Brian Snitker (2020-2025)

Walter Weiss (2025)

First Basemen:

Matt Olson (20.94) - 43

Hall of Famers:

Freddie Freeman (8.18) - 15

None

Second Basemen:

MVP:

Ozzie Albies (13.47) - 31

2020 - Freddie Freeman

2023 - Ronald Acuna

ShortStop:

Dansby Swanson (10.58) - 27

Cy Young

Orlando Arcia (2.75) - 11

2024 - Chris Sale

Third Base:

Rookie of the Year:

Austin Riley (22.19) - 42

2022 - Michael Harris

2025 - Drake Baldwin

Outfield:

Ronald Acuna (19.61) - 55

No Hitters:

Michael Harris (13.85) - 39

None

Marcell Ozuna (10.65) - 30

Adam Duvall (1.99) - 6

Notable Events:

The Braves have quality players everywhere who helped lead them to six straight

Notable Events:

division titles prior to 2024. Since then, the last two seasons have been filled with a

hellishly inordinate number of injuries. The Braves were able to persevere in '24 and

2020-2023 - Atlanta extended it's streak of Division titles to six. They came

make the Wild Card, but the decimation was too much in '25. So the question for '26

into the decade having won the division in both 2018 and 2019.

is will this extremely talented roster be able to bounce back from the adversity and

The 2020 roster contained several players who would be big contributors

resume their winning ways or have the injuries and the time out of the lineup taken their

moving forward: 2B Ozzie Albies; 3B Austin Riley; OF Marcel Ozuna;

toll and Atlanta is on the decline. Odds are, the Braves will be fine as the team is far

OF Ronald Acuna; LHP Max Fried.

from old. Management has done a great job of replenishing the roster with younger

There were also a bunch of very good players who would be replaced,

players to keep the line moving.

mostly for salary reasons: C Travis d'Arnaud, replaced by Sean Murphy;

1B Freddy Freeman, replaced by Matt Olsen; SS Dansby Swanson sort of

Starting Pitchers:

replaced in the lineup by CF Michael Harris.

□ LHP Chris Sale, 36, '24 FA from Boston, '25 7-5 2.58

And there were others who passed thru contributing for a year or two

□ RHP Spencer Strider, 26, '20 4th round pick, '25 7-14 4.45

early in the decade: P Charlie Morton, P Will Smith, P Ian Anderson,

□ RHP Spencer Schwellenbach, 26, '21 2nd round pick, '25 7-4 3.09

C William Contreras, P Kyle Wright, P Kenley Jansen, OF Jorge Soler,

□ RHP Hurston Waldrup, 24, '23 1st round pick, '25 6-1 2.88

OF Joc Peterson, P AJ Minter, P Kirby Yates, P Bryce Elder,

□ RHP Reynaldo Lopez, 32, '24 FA from Cleveland, '24 8-5 1.99

OF Ramon Laureano, 2B Whit Merrifield

□ RHP Grant Holmes, 30, '24 FA from Cleveland, '25 4-9 3.99

□ RHP Joey Wentz, 28, '24 FA from Cleveland, '25 3-6 4.92

□ Liberty Media has owned the Braves since 2007. The exception proves

If everyone is healthy, this is a stellar starting rotation. Five Aces.

the rule. The rule is that corporate owned teams never do well.

Chris Sale is a generational talent. Strider, Schwellenbach, Waldrup and Lopez all

The Braves are the exception.

have top of the rotation talent. The caveat is health as Sale, Strider, Schwellenbah and

Under Liberty Media, the Tomahawks have done very well.

Lopez all had significant injury issues in 2025.

Relief Pitchers:

□ 43 year old Alex Anthopolous is GM since 2017. He has presided over Atlanta's

□ Closer Raisel Iglesias, 35, '22 trade with Anaheim, '25 4-6 3.21 29 saves

extreme success over the last three years. A Canadian, Anthopolous

□ RHP Robert Suarez, 35, '26 FA from San Diego, '25 4-6 2.96 40 saves

spent almost all of his career in the Toronto Blue Jays organization

□ LHP Dylan Lee, 31, '21 FA from Miami, '25 2-4 3.29

prior to coming to the Braves. Anthopolous took over from

□ LHP Aaron Bummer, 32, '21 FA from White Sox, '25 3-2 3.81

John Capolella who had the misfortune as being the one caught

□ LHP Jose Suarez, 28, '25 trade from Anaheim, '25 2-0 1.86

who got caught cheating when signing international free agents

□ RHP Al Smith-Shawyer, 23, '25 trade from Anaheim, '25 3-2 3.81

in the Carribean.

□ RHP Tyler Kinley, 35, '25 trade from Colorado, '25 5-0 0.77

Capolella was made an example of and was thrown out of baseball.

□ RHP Joel Payamps, 32, '25 trade from Milwaukee, '25 0-1 6.84

□ RHP Ian Hamilton, 31 '25 FA from NYY, '25 2-1 4.28

Brian Snitker is the field manager. He was hired in 2017 and had done

Raisel Iglesias has been a save machine for a number of years. Robert Suarez was

nothing but win since coming to Atlanta. Snitker retired after the ugly

signed to a three year deal, he had 76 saves for the Padres over the last two years.

2025 season and his bench coach, Walt Weiss has taken over.

These two make the bullpen high quality. The rest of the bullpen is solid, not great.

Regulars:

Atlanta's excellent management team always has a good farm system

□ C - Drake Baldwin, 25, '22 3rd round pick, '25 19 80 .274

that keeps the talent flowing. They have brought in several superstars

□ 1B - Matt Olsen, 31, '22 trade from A's, '25 29 95 .272

such as OF Ronald Acuna and 2B Ozzie Albies as International Free

□ 2B - Ozzie Albies, 28, '13 IFA, '25 16 74 .240

Agents and others like 3B Austin Riley, 1B Freddy Freeman, OF Michael

□ SS - Mauricio Dubon, 31, '26 trade with Houston, '25 7 33 .241

Harris, SS Dansby Swanson, LHP Max Fried, RHP Spencer Strider,

□ 3B - Austin Riley, 28, '21 1st round pick '25 16 54 .260

RHP Spencer Schwellenberger, RHP Hurston Waldrup,

□ OF - Ronald Acuna, 27, '14 IFA, '25 21 42 .290

C Drake Baldwin thru the draft.

□ OF - Michael Harris, 24. '19 3rd round pick, '25 20 86 .249

And, of course, they used their minor league talent to pick up some

□ OF - Mike Yastrzemski, 26, '26 FA from KC, '25 17 46 .233

quality players thru trades such as LHP Chris Sale, C Sean Murphy,

□ OF - Jurickson Profar, 33, '25 FA from SD, '25 14 43 .245

1B Matt Olsen, Closer Raisel Iglesias and RHP Reynaldo Lopez

□ C - Sean Murphy, 30, '23 trade from A's, '25 16 45 .199

□ 2B - Ha-Seong Kim, 30, '26 FA from TB, '25 5 17 .234

2022 - The Braves win 101 games but lose to the Phillies in the NLDS.

Lots of quality. Potentially a circular lineup. One thing that is worrisome is that a lot of

guys had bad years and the question is - was this a one-off and they will bounce back

2023 - Atlanta wins 104 games but loses to the Philies in the NLDS.

or is it an actual decline? It's most likely the former as the guys who had bad years are

This Braves team was a remarkable offensive club that scored a record

all in their prime or just approaching their prime. Olson, Albies, Riley, Acuna and Harris

199 runs over the league average.

are the culprits. One bright spot last year was the emergence of C Drake Baldwin who

Matt Olson (54), Ronald Acuna (41) Marcel Ozuna (40) and Austin Riley (37)

replaced Sean Murphy who is showing signs of age as catchers age quicker than other

led a record breakig 307 home run barrage. The lowest HR total of any of

positions. The Braves added a couple of solid, not spectacular, bats in Mike Yastrzemski

the Braves starters was Orlando Arcia with 17. Insane.

and Mauricio Dubon.

The lineup was obviously circular with Sean Murphy (21 HR) catching

and reserve C Travis d'Arnaud adding 11 more. 2B Ozzie Albies had 33 HR.

OF Eddie Rosario had 21, CF Michael Harris (18) and reserve OF Jared

Kelenic added 11 more. That's one over 50, three over 40, five over 30,

seven over 20 and eleven in double figures.

2024

The Braves are seven under the league average in runs scored. They

drop form 947 to 704. That's a 243 run drop season over season which is

the fourth largest drop season to season of any team in big league history.

Injuries certainly didn't help. Superstar OF Ronald Acuna went down

with an injury. 3B Austin Riley was plagued all season by injuries.

As was 2B Ozzie Albies. C Sean Murphy forgot how to hit. 1B Matt Olson

took a flat out nose dive. Nobody came close to what they did in '23

No surprise also that the Braves nose dived 15 games in the standings

to an 89-73 mark. It actually could have been worse but the Braves

pitching was spectacular in '24 allowing 104 less runs than the league

average, a big improvement from the 32 in 2023.

2025

Everyone expected Atlanta to bounce back in '25 but, instead, injuries

hit even worse and the Braves dropped another 13 games to 76-86.

The question is, is this the new normal for Atlanta?