3 Atlanta Braves who will be better in 2024 and 2 who won't

Not going to lie, it will be mighty hard for the Atlanta Braves to top what they did during the 2023 regular season. They ran away with the No. 1 seed in the National League. One player after another seemed to have career-best years in historic campaigns. However, they managed just one victory in the postseason, as they fell in four games to the NL East rival Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS ... again.

Atlanta and Philadelphia are among the best teams in the National League entering this season. Although the New York Mets could be markedly better than they were a year ago, they feel like a distant third to Atlanta and Philadelphia, in some order. While the Miami Marlins try to figure out what they are for the umpteenth time in their history, the Washington Nationals are still in rebuilding mode.

So with all that in mind, this article is all about projecting Braves on last year's team who will be better than in 2023, or worse in some cases. Given how strong this offense and pitching staff is, this was not an easy exercise. When you have a team that is this loaded, it is hard to spot cracks in the foundation. Atlanta could very well win its second World Series championship in four seasons with this collective.

Here are three Braves who will be even better in 2024, as well as two who will probably be a bit worse.

3 Atlanta Braves who could be even better in 2024

3. Sean Murphy may benefit from having a full offseason with the Braves

I am not going to worry about stats in these assessments. When I am being bullish on a player's stock, I obviously think better numbers across the board goes without saying. What I am saying about Sean Murphy is that I think a full offseason knowing that he is going to play for the Braves will be huge for him, especially when it comes to sustaining excellence in the right-handed batter's box.

Expect for Murphy to have somewhat of a soft platoon with Travis d'Arnaud. While Murphy is younger and the better player over d'Arnaud, the latter has played his best brand of baseball ever since coming over to the Braves in 2020. d'Arnaud has dealt with injuries, but I think having more familiarity with the pitching staff and where he slots into the batting order may lead to a better year for Murphy.

Although Murphy was already an All-Star in his first year with the Braves, I feel like this is the season where he truly establishes himself as a bona-fide top-three player at his position group. At some point in the first half, he was in semi-serious NL MVP consideration. It is not easy for a catcher to do that in a game where you have to play 162 of them, but his bat, glove and arm are separating factors.

As with his former Oakland teammate Matt Olson, a second year with the Braves so serves Murphy.