A Quick Reflection of the Strong Start From Braves 2B Ozzie Albies

Ozzie Albies went down quietly in the series opener against the Dodgers on Friday. A year ago, that would have been a frustrating common occurrence, but now, it's a rare off night.

The Atlanta Braves' second baseman saw his 17-game hitting streak snapped on Wednesday afternoon, and if you unofficially count Friday night, he's reached base in some form over the last 19 games. He reached on a fielder's choice. He got on base in the literal sense, but it doesn't positively impact his on-base percentage.

Even after what could be considered back-to-back out-of-character games, he's still batting .311 with an .886 OPS, eight home runs and 23 RBIs. The lowest his OPS has been this season is .736, 65 points higher than last season's finish.

His 1.8 bWAR is already higher than what he had across 99 games in 2024. He's pretty close to passing his 2.1 bWAR he had across 157 games last season. WAR isn't the tell-all stat some make it out to be, but in this case, it provides a very clear idea of how well Albies has played.

His stats took a minor dip, and you still probably didn't notice.

The season is long from over. He's not out of the woods yet, per se. But there has to be some feeling of a sigh of relief on his and the Braves' part that he's hitting the way he is. The reality is that picking up his club option over the offseason was somewhat of a gamble.

Even during spring training, his performance caused concern, apart from one big swing in the World Baseball Classic. The only perk was that it was low-risk from a financial perspective.

Thirty-nine games into the regular season, saying all appears fine is an understatement. He belted a home run in his first at-bat of the season, and he's never looked back. If he keeps hitting at a level anywhere close to where he's been most of this season, he'll likely get an All-Star nod.

If it wasn't obvious, I'm a tad behind on the latest discussions about how good his run has been as of late, but it's still worth the discussion, even after the streaks, hitting or on-base, are over.

The one critique of his start would be that he hasn't stolen a base yet. He has the goal of stealing 25 or 30. He still has 100% of those stolen bases to go. But if that's the only critique, I'm really splitting hairs right now. The team as a whole is 22nd in baseball in stolen bases. It's not just him. It's everyone not named Ronald Acuña Jr. and Jorge Mateo.

Through almost one-quarter of the season, he's far from the problem, regardless of the stats or off-nights that can be put under a microscope. This season, it's different. He's a key cog in the Braves' machine once again.

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