Braves Expected to Make Big Jump in 2025 MLB Season

With all the attention toward the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East this offseason, it's easy to forget the Atlanta Braves won 89 games last year.

By Braves standards, that was a "down season" for the club. But Braves Country and writers covering the team, such as myself, expect a bounce back campaign from the Braves in 2025.

So does Bleacher Report's Tim Kelly, who placed the Braves second on his list of eight MLB teams "that'll have a better record in 2025" than last season.

"Ronald Acuña Jr. (torn left ACL) and Spencer Strider (internal brace procedure) each won't be ready for Opening Day as they continue to recover from injuries that sidelined them for most of the 2024 season. Chris Sale, Reynaldo López and Ozzie Albies are other players you can reasonably have durability questions about," wrote Kelly.

"With that said, Brian Snitker's club dealt with about the worst possible injury luck a year ago and still managed to sneak into the playoffs. Even in a division where both the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets have World Series aspirations, it's hard to imagine the Braves dealing with more injuries than they did a season ago.

"And it's hard to argue with the immense upside of the team that president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has built."

Kelly estimated that the Braves will 95-100 games during 2025.

The Braves were one of five National League teams on Kelly's list. The other four were the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants.

In the American League, Kelly expects the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, and Athletics to be better.

Other than repeated bad injury luck, the biggest concern with the Braves in 2025 is their pitching staff. Atlanta must replace 320 innings in its rotation with the departures of Max Fried and Charlie Morton.

But Spencer Schwellenbach is expected to take a step forward in his first full MLB season. The Braves will also get back Spencer Strider from his year-long injury about a month into the regular season.

Until then, the Braves will turn to youngsters AJ Smith-Shawver, Ian Anderson, Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder as depth starters.

The Braves will also need to replace A.J. Minter and Joe Jiménez in their bullpen. Minter signed as a free agent with the Mets while Jiménez could miss the entire season because of offseason knee surgery.

But Kelly is bullish on the Braves because of their offense. Kelly was complimentary of the Jurickson Profar addition and identified Michael Harris II as a "sleeper NL MVP" candidate. 2023 MVP winner Ronald Acuña Jr. is also expected to return early in the season for the Braves.