The team that greeted the home fans tonight was, sadly, one we’ve seen too many times this year: it was a team that left seven men on base, stranded Michael Harris on second after he hit a leadoff double, and squandered yet another brilliant start by Tyler Mahle. These Braves amassed a grand total of just 14 hits and eight runs in the four games they played, and that really tells the story. None of these games was a blowout, mostly thanks to excellent pitching (and to a certain amount of offensive struggle in the opposite clubhouse). Our offense just laid an egg.
I’ll leave the Where Do We Go From Here? to the offseason. Today, we’re just a team that sleepwalked through another loss.
Tyler Mahle, though. His postseason resume is now two starts long, and it looks like this: 13 1/3 innings, nine hits, two runs, two walks, two earned runs. Bringing him back looks like the key priority of the offseason.
Michael Harris went 2-3 with a walk in the leadoff spot. He went 11-27 in the playoffs with a .407/.448/.667 batting line, while facing Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Tyler Glasnow, and Blake Snell, who may be the worst pitcher to ever win two Cy Young Awards, but he did win them. Money Mike is in baseball’s upper echelon, effective immediately.
What can you say about this team, other than that they wore down? Didier Fuentes was used constantly in the regular season and nearly daily in the postseason, and by the end, he couldn’t find the strike zone. Matt Olson played every day, and he was silent in the postseason. Ronald Acuña was playing through injury, apparently, and submitted the worst postseason performance of his life, a sub-.500 OPS. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it more loudly now: this team’s fetishization of playing every day is counterproductive.
It didn’t really work out, but I’m still glad they were willing to give Sale extra rest for Game 3 if they felt he needed it, because I generally think that is a really good strategy for keeping guys both healthy and effective over the long haul. I think the other 25 men could have used a bit more of that, too. This team was gassed, and they were beaten by a Dodger squad that wasn’t all that much better than they were. But they were a little better, and that was enough.
I’m not despondent. This is not one of the Atlanta juggernauts that got upset in the postseason. This is a team that topped out about where we thought they would. The Brewers and Rays are stronger than the 2026 Braves, from top to bottom, and while that never guaranteed anybody anything – heck, the Pale Hose could win a ring for His Holiness – it takes a bit of the sting out of the defeat.
But just a bit. The winter’s so damn long, and the labor squabbles seem likely to make it longer than usual. Let’s keep the lights on at this bar.
So long, everybody.
Wait til next year.
Ronald Acuña Jr. via Franco García:
“I’m particularly frustrated with myself. I feel like I did nothing to help the team this series.”
Tyler Mahle on returning to the Braves if the opportunity presented itself:
“For sure. It’d be crazy for anyone not to want to be here. This place is awesome, and there’s no other way to put it. It’d be crazy not to want to play here.”
But AA will lowball him, preferring to hope one of the injured stable will return to prior glories, and he’ll go elsewhere.
2 years, 6 million and the second year is a team option. Also the 6 million is Monopoly money.
Great recap AAR after a disappointing loss. Simply put, I think the Dodgers are better than we are. Given that they have the biggest payroll in baseball, I’m not surprised. Being able to keep it so close with all the pitching injuries early on and then down the stretch was admirable. I think Weiss did a great job of managing, especially considering the circumstances.
Let’s hope Acunas performance will light a fire under him. The last few offseasons for him have been devoted exclusively to recovery from injury. Let’s hope he can devote this offseason to getting back to where he was when he won the mvp.
I wouldn’t expect any substantial transactions until the new CBA.
Not really too upset with this. It was obvious all summer long that, outside of going a crazy heater, this wasn’t a championship caliber team. Even with all the injuries, the pitching carried this team all season long. There are just too many issues to deal with in the offense to compete with the best teams in a short series.
https://x.com/bravesworldwide/status/2108025498861469844?s=46&t=WSNPrB2JyUoeKSn2PZsXZg
Someone said he does this every year? What’s the point of this?
This was a fun team until about June. And despite some great pitching performances, it was never going to be easy against the Dodgers or anyone else when our rotation was held together with duct tape and glue (if that.) Despite that, there were some highlights to the season. Harris finally broke out for a full season. Dubon was a major find. Mahle was a great pick up. And indeed Kerr did his part.
I have no rooting interest in any of the other teams so I guess it’s wait till spring training for me now. And hope they can get their sh*t together and avoid a stoppage (not really holding my breath.)
There’s not much of a sting from last night’s loss. I was frustrated for maybe a few seconds, but then logic returns: their payroll is double ours.
The rosterbation this offseason will be the most intense since the rebuild. I would say Harris, Olson, and Drake are untouchable. Oddly enough, as flawed of a player Ozzie is, I would probably hold onto him based on his contract. Yaz probably stays. But Dubon and Kim are FA’s, and I would be really trying to package Acuna to get rid of Riley and/or Murphy’s contract. We’re probably stuck with Profar. But Profar makes what a 4th OF makes, so make him a 4th OF. Who cares…
On the pitching side, we’re probably stuck with Strider, and I probably wouldn’t do much on the pitching side. Just try to get everybody healthy. See which of these young pitchers can get and stay healthy. You’ve gotta be going into the offseason really encouraged about the pitching. The rotation will be crowded: Sale, Strider, Schwellenbach, Elder, Fuentes, AJSS, Ritchie, Holmes. Lopez will only make $8M next year. Do you stretch Ray Kerr out?
Martin Perez needs a permanent suite at Truist.
Do you become the first MLB franchise to really just lean into the strategy that has been emerging across several contenders that you just start collecting 2-4 inning pitchers? They’re not starters, relievers, openers, they’re just “pitchers”. You don’t have a rotation, you don’t have a bullpen, you don’t have openers, you just have 8-9 guys that you mix and match based on the matchups and how they’re performing.
I had said all year that we had some really interesting names that we were collecting, and I think AA‘s design to map out 27 outs with an unconventional type of pitching staff worked really well for two playoff series. This team really could have won the World Series this year. But the one thing that became our organizational bedrock – extending the young position players – became the millstone around our neck. The one thing that AA was most proud of is the one thing that probably hurt his best chance of winning a second World Series. He’s got a lot of freaking work to do this offseason. I’m obviously OK with not winning the World Series because it’s really hard to do that, but if we go into next season with the same position player group, that will be really frustrating considering how well we’ve developed the other side of the roster.
I also don’t think there will be a significant work stoppage next year, for what it’s worth.
Geez, the whole lineup didn’t hit except Harris but it’s Ronald getting all the crap. I just have to say something man.
Agreed.
I, too, am not terribly disappointed at this loss. We won our first playoff series in 5 years knocking out the rival Phillies, then we lost to a team in the Dodgers that has an unlimited wallet and probably should have beaten us by more than they did.
It’s clear to everyone that this team had flaws. AA will have work to do to improve this offense. Kim comes off the books, and it may be time to let Iggy go also and use his money to improve the offense. That’s 35-40 million right there.
AA will have decisions to make on Dubon, Mahle, and how to improve the left field situation. Profar’s suspension is over, he’s still under contract, and Yaz is still under contract is well.
Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Tyler Glasnow, and Blake Snell against Chris Sale Tyler Mahle, Ray Kerr, and Dylan Dodd says a lot.
The hell of it is that Sale, Mahle, Kerr and Dodd held their own!
At this point, Acuña, Riley, Albies, Murphy, and Kim (and Profar!) are all post-peak. It’s not clear that the team saw them that way entering this season, and it’s not clear to me just how much of a dead cat bounce we’ll see from them. To me, that’s the top question of the offseason: who are these guys, and how much can they provide at this point of their careers?
Yes, our starters did hold their own and more, for sure.
But there are many possible explanations why a hitter might have an off week, and I think it starts with who are the pitchers they faced? That’s what I’m pointing out.
Other reasons could include that somebody is playing through an injury, or playing at 6:00pm gets somebody out of his routine, or somebody doesn’t handle flying across 3 time zones and back that well, or somebody is just plain out of gas, or maybe just random luck. We can probably think of others.
Some selected series OPSs from the Dodgers side: Pages, .619, Betts, .567, T. Hernandez, .563, Ohtani, .421, W. Smith, .125. I don’t want to see things blown up over one week.
It’s fair to say that the primes are closing for our offensive core, keeping in mind that Olson is the oldest. But I’m more concerned about upgrading from Yaz and Kim and Murphy than I am about the core.
This is all assuming we even need to care about how old anybody is going to be in 2027.
Some have observed that Riley isn’t getting flak because we’ve just accepted that he sucks now.
Acuña is a former MVP and is acclaimed to be the most talented player to ever wear the Braves uniform. He’s going to naturally draw more flak.
If you can get a big enough haul for Acuña I’m considering that move
If packaged with Riley/Murphy fine.
I’m willing to go one more year with Riley.
Murphy has been the mistake. If Riley has another bad year, he’s the mistake, too.
Albies club option will get picked up, last year for him
Riley is coming up on a make or break year. Braves are crushed if he hits .219 and less than 20 homers again.
What the Hell do you do with Profar?
Does Dubon become your everyday SS? Kim is gone
What does Fuentes’ role look like?
Robert Suarez is probably your closer, Iglesias leaves unless he takes a big pay cut and perhaps a different role
Rotation, lord where to begin?
Can Strider and Schwellenbach help you anymore? Reynaldo Lopez? Is AJSS in rotation? (I think he is but where?)
Do you resign Mahle? I lean yes
Can you go add a FA somewhere else? Sonny Gray is a FA and frustrated in Boston
Albies is post peak, but my guess is they exercise his option to bridge the gap for 1 more year. 2 of Southisene, Lodise, and Gil should be ready to be up the middle for the next 6 years starting in 2028.
Acuña is also a no brainer option pick up.
We’re stuck with Riley. We can only hope that being a year removed from his core surgery will help him get closer to career norms.
Hopefully Eric Hartman will be able to be an upgrade in left field in late 2027 or 2028.
No more extensions for young players buying out their arbitration years. It hasn’t been worth it with the lone exceptions of Albies and Acuña. Riley’s contract is turning into a disaster.
We finished action on 6/7 (juggling motion) with a 45-21 record and a +116 differential.
Thereafter we went 49-47 with a differential of 0.
That last 96 games showed a .500 team both in expectation and results. In my opinion, that is who we are, and it’s pretty close to who we were in 2025. That’s what we looked like in the playoffs.
We had a hot start fueled by Dom Smith, Dubon and Mateo hitting .350 or so, helped by Olson and Albies hitting .300. Those things were not sustainable and they were in fact not sustained. That fluky start is what really distinguished 2026 from 2025.
We are a team in decline, but that doesn’t mean we need to tear it down. Our pitching is obviously still a strength. I would bring back Mahle. Albies is a no-brainer for his salary. No need to create another hole when we have so many. Acuña should not be traded for the same reason but also because it would be selling low. He can still slug. If someone wants to take most of Murphy’s salary they can have him, but I do not anticipate that. Same for Riley. Profar, well, let’s hope he can still hit a little.
Outfield and SS are the main areas for improvement but I don’t expect us to sign a significant bat because we have major hitting reinforcements coming, possibly by 2028. Kim is not only gone but out of MLB. I’d sign Dubon and plan for him to start at SS and hope Lodise could be ready at point. If there is a RHB to platoon with Yaz on a short deal, that would be ideal. I am once again going to clamor for Gleyber Torres to be that bat and also provide a buffer for Albies’ possible collapse, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve ever had an interest in him. Otherwise we have to hope Riley and Acuna can bounce back to league average and elite levels respectively to make significant strides in 2027.
Do we look at moving RAJ to most a DH role? I know the arm strength and he can be a good defender, but sometimes he runs out there like he is protecting himself from injury, which is a real concern for sure. If we could add another competent outfielder and if Profar has anything left, we could switch him, RAJ, Yaz and the “new” person between outfield and DH. It “should” be better than using Dom Smith anyway
New post is up.
I mostly agree with you on what the team should and will do, but as for its “true” quality, I’ll point out that before the ASB the team was 55-40, .579, +92 runs and after the ASB it was 39-28, .582, though only +24 runs. That looks better than .500 to me. (Basically, I’m saying that if you don’t count the hot start through May, you also shouldn’t give too much weight to the weak June, especially since July & August were both good months.) Also, I think the playoff performance against two good teams was better than that of a .500 team. It would’ve helped if we had had more than two SPs who could go 4+ innings.
I hope we bring back Mahle, but even with his gaudy post-trade ERA, his FIP post-trade was in the 3s. That’s a valuable pitcher, but I hope no other team wants to pay him like his true talent is a sub-2 ERA. He got $10M from SF after going 6-4, 2.18 (3.37 FIP) in 2025, I assume coming off of an injury, and I suspect someone will offer him at least that much after his performance with the Braves despite his poor SF numbers.
I’m not as optimistic as some about our minor league position player prospects, at least not yet. Lodise was 22 this year and hit ok in 400 PA in A ball, hit well in 80 PA in A+, and hit ok (.283/.343/.435) in 100 PA in AA. Gil was 20 and hit well in 160 PA at AA, which is encouraging. Southisene was 19 this year and hit ok in A+; he might turn out to be good, but even if he is, he’s a ways off, and none of the three look to be can’t miss. For comparison, when Albies was 20 he was a highly ranked prospect who put up similar AAA numbers to Lodise’s age-22 AA numbers and spent the last two months in Atlanta, and by the end of his age 22 season he had led the NL in hits and accumulated 10 bWAR. I don’t think the three prospects are in anybody’s top 50 minor league rankings. I’ll defer to snowshine, but I won’t get too excited about them until they perform well for most of a season in AA or above.