The Atlanta Braves finally ran into a team who might be definitely worse than them. After completing a three-game home sweep of the toothless Minnesota Twins, the perennial NL East power improved to 8-13 on the season. They are playing better baseball after a disastrous 0-7 start, but only the 8-15 Pittsburgh Pirates and the 4-17 Colorado Rockies are worse in the entire National League.
Slowly but surely, the bats have started to come alive again. The pitching staff is putting forth more high-quality starts of late. Even the bullpen that nobody likes is shockingly starting to figure it out. However, the team is still 6.5 games back of the division-leading New York Mets at 15-7, as well as 4.5 games back of either the Arizona Diamondbacks or the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL's last playoff spot.
Now that the team has proven to us all that winning streaks can actually be had this season, I will now attempt to play the blame game for a first month of the season to forget. The best part, and worst part, in all this is it is a total team effort to find Atlanta at a pitiful 8-13 on the season. Figuring out who is most to blame is easier said than done, but I will try to do my very best in all this.
But let me be perfectly clear about one thing: It all goes back to ownership, the biggest culprit by far.
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Who is most to blame for the Atlanta Braves' April to forget?
It starts with Atlanta Braves Holdings, which is an offshoot of owner Liberty Media. For whatever reason, they did not seem to give general manager Alex Anthopoulos the green light to make any sort of move this offseason. The idea was the players who were hurt or played below their standard last year would return to glory in 2025. That has not been entirely the case, and it has resulted in a compound effect.
Anthopoulos having to operate with at least one hand tied behind his back allowed for key players like Max Fried to leave in free agency. While Charlie Morton is looking more and more expired by the day, Fried is back to being what he was at times for this Atlanta team: a bona-fide ace. In turn, this has put more pressure on Chris Sale coming off a career year to lead a rotation that is already down Reynaldo Lopez.
Again, I expect for the rotation to eventually be a strength for this team, but it may take some time. Admittedly, it was negligent of Anthopoulos to seemingly not pay attention to the bullpen at all. This will remain this team's biggest weakness, simply because it does not have the ceiling of what the starting rotation and everyday lineup can provide. This means the bullpen is the team's bottleneck.
Where it really hurts has been in the mismanagement of the outfield by skipper Brian Snitker. We know that Ronald Acuña Jr. is not quite ready to return to the lineup, but Snitker's double standard of defending Quadruple-A player Jarred Kelenic for not hustling when he would have totally punished Acuña Jr. is just another reason why I doubt Atlanta will give him a long-term deal after this one expires.
So Kelenic has been put into a role he is simply not built for. The one player of note Anthopoulos acquired during the offseason, Jurickson Profar, got popped for PEDs one week into his Braves tenure. Meanwhile, Michael Harris II continues to be one of the streakiest hitters alive. His approach in the batter's box is utterly maddening, seemingly making it up as he goes along with every bad swing.
To best encapsulate this, the biggest party to blame is Atlanta Braves Holdings. I would say Anthopoulos deserves the next most blame because he built this team. From there, I would give Snitker some well-deserved flack for almost certainly being on the way out. If I had to blame a player or two, I would argue for Harris not regularly playing like a star and Kelenic for robbing the team blind.
As it is with anything, a professional sports team is only as good as ownership allows for it to be.