A's or Atlanta Braves: Which Team's On-Field Future is Brighter?
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The A's and Atlanta Braves have been linked for the past few seasons thanks to a couple of big-time trades between the two clubs, with both Matt Olson and Sean Murphy landing with Atlanta. Catcher Shea Langeliers was acquired in the Olson deal, and has turned into a big piece of the A's roster in his three full seasons with the club, but overall, the trades have swayed heavily in Atlanta's favor.
That said, both clubs finished with the same record (76-86) in 2025. This begs the question, which team's on-field future would you rather have?
On the one hand, the Braves have a number of star players locked up for a few more seasons, and have shown that when healthy, this roster can be one of the best in baseball. The issue they've had the past two seasons is that they just haven't been healthy, which leads to some uncertainty for the club moving forward.
The A's on the other hand are a young, up-and-coming group that should take the next step forward in 2026 and make the postseason. Of course, the expectation for the club may not end up being the reality.
The club witnessed Langeliers take a big step forward at the plate this season, Nick Kurtz turned in one of the best rookie seasons of all time, and in Jacob Wilson's first full season, he was competing to become just the third player in MLB history to win the batting title as a rookie. Can they reproduce those same numbers in 2026?
That's going to be the A's biggest question next season. For Atlanta, health will be a big question, but how they end up filling some spots on the roster this winter could sway this one way or another.
Marcell Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias are set to hit free agency, while Chris Sale, Pierce Johnson, Ozzie Albies, and Tyler Kinley have club options this winter. Ha-Seong Kim has a $16 million player option this winter, and there has been speculation online that he'll decline. Given that he's entering his age 30 season, he could end up getting a longer contract that's also worth more via free agency.
That said, $16 million could be tough to pass up. That's another decision that will dictate how the roster comes together in the near term.
The Braves will also be dealing with the departure of their manager Brian Snitker, which just creates another unknown for the club heading into 2026.
While the A's haven't shown that they can reach the levels that the Braves have in recent seasons, they have enough talent to be an 85-90 win team next season. They trudged through a 1-20 stretch in May and June that really sunk their entire season, but outside of that they went 75-66, which is a .531 winning percentage and an 86-win pace over a full season.
That's the level of talent that showed up for the club for 141 games. They could also be seeing the debut of No. 3 overall prospect Leo De Vries next year, and have built up some solid pitching depth that should be a step up for them over this year's club for when they face injuries.
Atlanta will also be getting Reynaldo López and Joe Jiménez back from injury, which should provide a good boost, but it's also tough to count on them to be the players they've shown they can be in the past. Injuries take time to fully recover from, so depending on each of them to reach previous levels of performance wouldn't be wise.
While we'll have to wait a few months for a final determination of which roster looks more prepared for 2026, the relative health of the A's, and their youth, seem to provide a bit of an edge at the moment. At the same time, young players can also regress themselves, so we don't want to bank on Kurtz hitting like Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani, either.
Comparing these two club's off-seasons will be very interesting when all is said and done.
Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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