A week and change into the 2025 MLB season, and your Atlanta Braves are the worst team in baseball! While they finally got into the win column on Opening Day at Truist Park on Friday with a 10-0 shutout victory over the Miami Marlins, Atlanta started the season out in an 0-7 hole. It came after a four-game sweep by the San Diego Padres and then a three-gamer from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
To put it quite frankly, there is very little the Braves have done well over the last several days. The starting pitching has been okay to middling. Nobody trusts the bullpen. And unfortunately, the most frustrating part about last year's team seems to be here to stay with this year's version. This team struggles to hit, especially when there are runners in scoring position. The offense has been pitiful.
So fresh off their first win of the season and with Strider supposedly returning as soon as next week, what Braves need to step up to get the most out of Stache 'N Gas' first start back in Atlanta? Most of the players I am going to mention every day in the field, but Strider could also use a boost from his fellow pitchers. San Diego and Los Angeles may be playoff teams, but so are the Braves. Figure it out.
David O'Brien of The Athletic tweeted out on Friday that we could see Strider return in a few days.
#Braves' Spencer Strider is close to rejoining the team. Snitker didn't rule out having him back as soon as next week, after Strider pitched 5 1/3 hitless, scoreless innings Friday for Triple-A Gwinnett w/ 2 walks, 8 Ks. He's coming up on 1 yr. since internal-brace elbow surgery.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) April 5, 2025
Without further ado, here are the five Braves I firmly believe need to step up with Strider returning.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
5. Aaron Bummer
If I had to pick a single relief pitcher to answer the call of stepping up his game over these next few weeks, I think I have to go with Aaron Bummer. He has been with the team for a little over a year now. That is enough time for me to get a really good sense of what he can and cannot do in this relief corps. Watching his mechanics make my arm hurt, but he has been a very inconsistent pitcher of late.
Since Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos did not aggressively fix the bullpen, I need to lean on guys who I know in the hopes I can trust them. Pierce Johnson has pitched the best so far. While Raisel Iglesias has not had much work, he is a closer. For Atlanta to hold its leads, or potentially cut into them, the Braves need Bummer to elevate into a role where he rarely hangs crooked numbers.
Bummer is being paid quite a lot to be a part of this relief core, so put your money where your arm is.
4. Ozzie Albies
I am going to put a little more on Ozzie Albies' plate for the time being. While he has been one of the better Braves players at the plate so far this season, if you can believe that, I am getting so very tired of him never being the guy to carry the offense. He seems to be a player who can be a part of a trio that can do it, but never the lone wolf in that regard. Albies needs to get on base a bit more often.
While I can understand the low batting average, that being coupled with a low on-base percentage does not sit well with me. To me, this signifies that he is not seeing the ball as well as he should and is swinging at pretty much everything, oftentimes to soft contact. A little more plate discipline could do wonders in helping the Braves figure out why it is just so darn impossible for them to score regularly.
There are other bigger culprits for the Braves' early-season swoon, but Albies must step up his game.
3. Chris Sale
Although Chris Sale will never appear in the same game for the Braves as Strider, his role with the team is even more important now. Sale won the NL Triple Crown a year ago in the midst of his best season as a professional. Not to say that he has really struggled at the start of his second season with the Braves, but he has to step up to not only take pressure off Strider, but to stave off attrition.
What I am 100 percent getting at is Reynaldo Lopez is down for the count with an early-season injury. After having been placed on the 60-day injured list, that means Sale and Spencer Schwellenbach must be the frontline starters we all know they are capable of. To this point of the season, Schwellenbach has been the team's best starting pitcher, as he got the win on Friday vs. the Marlins.
The sooner Sale finds his groove, the sooner the Atlanta starting rotation can get back to being elite.
2. Michael Harris II
There is no way around it. The Braves need Michael Harris II to be better at the plate. He is striking out way too often and does not have a walk on the season in eight games. The only other every day player who can say that is Jarred Kelenic, and we all know how we feel about him. See, Harris not only has to step up with Ronald Acuña Jr. still working his way back, but with Jurickson Profar suspended.
There may not be a Braves position player being tasked with more in every facet of the game quite like Harris is. He has to play great defense in centerfield, handle himself well on the base paths and hit well with the rest of the Atlanta outfield in flux. Then again, we are talking about the guy who won NL Rookie of the Year over Strider back in 2022. He has been paid a boat load of money. Go earn it then.
Harris was an easy inclusion on this list, but there was only one player who was a no-doubt selection.
1. Austin Riley
It has been a rough start to the season for third baseman Austin Riley. He is hitting well below the Mendoza Line at the plate and is striking out a third of the time he goes to the plate. While his hits have been timely, they have been few and far between. Since Marcell Ozuna and Matt Olson are the only two every day players seemingly holding their own at the plate, Riley sticks out like a sore thumb.
Atlanta's offense is built to win with speed on the base paths and power shots into the gaps and over the fence. When the Braves are at their best offensively, they boast one of the best corner infielder tandems in baseball with Olson and Riley. While Olson's game is not about hitting for a high average, Atlanta needs Riley's batting average to be at or around 100 points higher than where it is at of late.
If Riley can see the ball a little better hitting in the middle of the lineup, then that is a great for Atlanta.