A Reminder Not to Sleep on Atlanta Braves this Season

Their rivals to the north made the headlines over the offseason, but the Atlanta Braves chose to speak softly, knowing they were bringing back several big sticks.

In theory, there should be a lot of anticipation for what this team can do with a return to full health. Without key names, they won 89 and claimed the second National League wild card. There is no dispute that this is a playoff team after that.

However, there has been speculation that they won’t be able to keep up. A big reason for that is how quiet the Braves' offseason was in comparison to the big moves made by their rivals to the north. The Braves are a playoff team, but they didn’t make the moves their rivals made, so aren’t the same level of playoff team anymore.

They added Jurickson Profar to the outfield. That’s technically it, but we all know that’s not painting a full picture. They know what they have. It made it doable to have a quieter offseason.

Think of it this way, imagine if the headlines said that the Braves signed the following guys over the course of an offseason in addition to Profar:

Ronald Acuña Jr.
Spencer Strider
Ian Anderson
Austin Riley
Sean Murphy
Michael Harris II
Ozzie Albies

There would be a frenzy. Yes, these are guys who are already on the team, but they were either unavailable for virtually all of last season or at the very least, missed large parts of the year.

It really is like making offseason additions. The Mets and Phillies had to go out and add on the market because they had no choice. The Braves had the privilege of simply reinforcing in the form of a clean bill of health.

Max Fried and Charlie Morton are out? That’s OK because they went and added Strider, an all-star who has received Cy Young votes, and Anderson, who has a World Series ring, to the rotation.

On top of that, an MVP winner and a third baseman who hits 30-plus home runs a year, who didn’t play for the Braves in the playoffs, are going to be in the lineup again.

Let’s not forget that their all-star catcher missed two months of contributing and likely didn’t have the chance to fully recover. Yes, he’s hurt now too. But he’ll be back shortly after the start of the regular season. He’s going to have the time early on during the regular season to get back to form that he didn't before.

The Braves were also without their center fielder and second baseman for two months at a time as well. Yes, they had slower seasons than expected of them, but they missed out on two months to correct course. Harris managed to do so down the stretch. Give him those extra two months, that would have made a difference in the win column.

Again, remember that the team that didn’t have these key names nearly won 90 games and made the playoffs. It took until the very end, but getting in is still getting in. Imagine if they had been healthy. Actually, there is no need to imagine.

When this team was last healthy the year before, they won over 100 games and had the best record in the National League. A key difference between this 2025 team and that team is that the pitching is night and day better.

Yes, injuries are going to happen. We already saw it with Murphy this Spring Training and almost lost Riley again. But last season was a special level of being battered and bruised. Expecting that again is unreasonable.

The regular season gets going in less than two weeks. There should be excitement in the air. There is a reason the media and the sportsbooks are unwilling to count this team out. The pieces are there, and they’re going to remind the baseball world of such soon enough.

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