Healthy Braves Viewed as a Top Team in National League by MLBN Analysts

Health is always to be determined, but an Atlanta Braves team that can avoid the injury bug is still viewed as one of the top teams in the Senior Circuit

There are too many stars on this team to count them out | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

Some obvious question marks heading into the 2025 Atlanta Braves season surround health and being good enough when healthy. 

Health is always a wild card. But for the latter point, it’s not much of a debate. On Hot Stove, hosts Matt Vasgersian and Harold Reynolds agreed that the Braves are still one of the top teams if health doesn’t get in the way. 

“They’re on most people’s all-star lists in the National League,” Reynolds said. “If they come back and they’re healthy. That’s gotta be the best lineup in the National League East.” 

Both hosts acknowledge that if the Braves were able to make the playoffs with all of these injuries, they’d be much stronger. The year prior, when the lineup was healthy, the Braves won 104 games and won the division. 

A key injury toward the end of the season that Vasgersian said prevented them from still going on a deep playoff run was the loss of third baseman Austin Riley. 

Riley went down with a broken hand due to a hit by pitch on Aug. 18. There was some hope he would be back for the postseason because he progressing well but a CT scan near the end of the regular season revealed it wasn’t healed enough.  

In 110 games, finished batting .256 with 19 home runs and 56 RBIs. He was starting to return to form ahead of his injury. In his last 56 games, he batted .292 with 16 home runs with 36 RBIs. Over 162 games, Riley’s pace over that span would give him 45 home runs and 102 RBIs. 

This healthy lineup and rotation lent the Braves a hand in their projections for 2025. They’re expected to finish with 93 wins and take the NL East, according to the PECOTA Projections. They have them two games ahead of the Mets and a whopping eight games ahead of the Phillies. Neither host, Reynolds or Matt Vasgersian agreed with the projections. 

Vasgersian still sees the division as a Braves and Phillies race. This is despite the Mets making one of the top signings of the offseason, bringing in Juan Soto for the next 15 years. 

Reynolds sees the Phillies as good enough to take the division. 

According to FanDuel, the Braves have +135 odds to win the National League East. The Phillies have +180 odds and the Mets have +210. So the betting odds conflict a bit with the PECOTA projections for the Phillies and Mets but both agree the Braves are coming back to win the division. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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