Ozzie Albies Quietly Assembling Bounce-Back Season for Braves

With the individual players standing out early in the season, it can be easy to overlook the progress made by Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies. He’s not having the same big hits that are driving in runs that others have had, but he’s delivering a consistent presence.

Through seven games, he’s batting .296 with a .367 on-base percentage and a .774 OPS. His home run on opening day was the first long ball by a Braves player this season, and he got in on the action during the onslaught against the Diamondbacks on Thursday night.

Even if he hasn’t been the one racking up RBIs, he’s doing his part. He’s been driven in five times. Creating opportunities for your teams further down in the lineup is valuable.

Albies' plate discipline has looked better out of the gate. He's only struck out in 10% of his plate appearances, while drawing walks at the same rate. His hard-hit rate is down early in the season (20.7%), but it hasn't hurt his line-drive rate, which has ticked up a bit (25%). His average exit velocity is also still about the same as it normally is (86 mph in 2026 vs 88.2 mph for his career).

He’s taken a major step in the right direction. The power isn’t there yet. The opening day home run is his lone extra-base hit. But spraying the ball around the field for singles will do a lot of good.

The past couple of seasons have seen Albies battle inconsistencies that went hand-in-hand with injuries. Following his All-Star season in 2023, he posted a .245 and a .685 OPS across two seasons (256 games played).

Both seasons saw him experience a major wrist injury. The first one cost him about two months of the 2024 season, and the second one saw him finish the 2025 season prematurely.

Just before that latter injury, it looked like he was starting to put the long slump behind him. In his final 26 games, he batted .304 with an .897 OPS, six home runs, 24 RBIs and a pair of stolen bases. However, concerns rose once the aforementioned injury occurred, and he had a slow spring training.

He had the walk-off home run in the World Baseball Classic, which can’t be taken away from him. Outside of that swing, though, the stat lines weren’t working in his favor. Once the games mattered, that started to change.

In time, maybe he’ll start to find the gap more and put a few more balls in the outfield seats. For now, the Braves should be happy with the progress being made. It’s playing a part in the strong start to the season.

The Braves have taken five of the first seven games played this year. It’s total night and day compared to the 0-7 start last season, which an anemic offensive showing played a major role.

Overall, the team is averaging 5.85 runs per game. Even without the offensive eruption on Thursday night, they’re averaging a respectable four runs per game. There are still things to iron out, but they’re already on more stable ground than last season.