The Atlanta Braves have made the playoffs in four of their last five seasons since winning the World Series in 2021, but they were knocked out in the NLDS or earlier in three of those years, and are now one loss away from yet another NLDS exit at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers. While sure, Chris Sale didn't quite meet the moment in his Game 3 start, the Braves scored one run on five hits in that contest.
In fact, they've scored just seven runs in three games in this series, and it's not like their bats were on fire in the Wild Card series, either. As annoying as this is to admit, lackluster offensive performances have become a theme in October for Atlanta, with Ronald Acuña Jr. as the poster boy.
Ronald Acuña Jr. is a superstar who has been anything but that when it matters most
Acuña is a special talent. He's won an MVP award, is a five-time All-Star and a three-time Silver Slugger winner. He has a career .895 OPS, a mark only four qualified hitters surpassed this regular season alone. When healthy, Acuña has best-player-in-the-world kind of upside, but the postseason has been a different beast.
Acuña entered Tuesday's action slashing .244/.360/.409 with three home runs and nine RBI in 34 postseason games and 150 plate appearances. Those numbers only look worse now after he went 0-for-3 with a walk in Tuesday's Game 3. His postseason OPS is over 100 points lower than his regular season mark, and he has not hit a home run in the postseason since 2020. He has not hit a home run in the postseason with fans in the stands since 2019.
Acuña has had a couple of big moments, headlined by a grand slam he hit in the 2018 NLDS against the Dodgers. But the Braves ultimately lost that series, and he hasn't done much of anything of note in recent years. Even when Atlanta won a World Series in 2021, Acuña was out with an ACL tear.
Acuña's playoff legacy is a home run, in a series we lost 3-1, 8 years ago
— Braves After Dark (@BravesAfterDark) October 6, 2026
Again, he's an incredible player, but that's what makes his playoff no-shows that much more frustrating. Acuña has made appearances in six different postseasons, but the Braves haven't been to a Fall Classic in a single one of those, and memorable moments have been hard to spot. What makes this hurt even more is that Acuña isn't the only member of this Braves core that's shrunk under postseason pressure.
Braves position player core continues to have postseason demons
Acuña is the most notable of the star players with a rough postseason past, but look at this entire Braves core.
Player | Career Regular Season OPS | Career Postseason OPS (before NLDS G3) | 2026 Postseason OPS |
|---|---|---|---|
Ronald Acuña Jr. | .895 | .769 | .451 |
Matt Olson | .855 | .693 | .535 |
Ozzie Albies | .762 | .690 | 1.123 |
Michael Harris II | .771 | .704 | 1.025 |
Austin Riley | .800 | .648 | .555 |
Drake Baldwin | .814 | .405 | .405 |
Credit to Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II, who are having strong postseasons to date, but for the most part, the table above consists of very good regular-season players who perform at a below-average level when the lights are brightest. I don't care how good Atlanta's pitching can be; if their hitters can't hit, how can they advance?
I mean, Drake Baldwin and Acuña have been staples at the top of Atlanta's lineup all postseason, yet they have OPS numbers around where pitchers' OPS numbers were when they hit. Matt Olson is arguably the best first baseman in the NL, but he's been brutal in October, including a crucial strikeout in the eighth inning on Tuesday.
At a certain point, enough has to be enough. I'm not going to say that the Braves should consider trading Acuña or anything, but shaking things up in a major way could be in order if this team is unable to advance past the NLDS once again. We have a large enough sample size to suggest that simply running it back with a minor change isn't going to be good enough when the entire core shrinks in October.
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