2 Braves who’ve earned an apology from their doubters, 1 not quite there

3) Braves doubters can begin drafting apology letters to Michael Harris

Michael Harris may have woken up this week. Now 6-for-19 with a home run and a pair of doubles, the sophomore slump is hopefully behind him. Start drafting up that apology letter. Depending on your choice of medium, don’t push send or slap a stamp on it quite yet. Harris has much more to prove before anyone should say sorry.

Last year’s National League Rookie of the Year winner is still batting just .193/.272/.304 on the season. He won’t come close to replicating the .297/.339/.514 he batted last year. It’s virtually impossible barring some sort of combination of channeling his inner Luis Arraez and Aaron Judge.

The first two months of the season were absolutely brutal for Harris in different ways. He was 5-for-25 in the first month while battling through an injury. May wasn’t much better with him playing regularly but hitting only .167/.260/.274. He has improved through his first 28 plate appearances in June and looks on track to give the Braves some sort of production even if it’s coming out of the number nine spot in the lineup.

Harris is someone Braves fans will have to believe in. Signed to an extension through at least 2030, he’s going to be here a while. For his sake and the sanity of those who cheer him on, stay hopeful the ugliness at the start of 2023 is a part of the growing pains many young players go through.