After five grueling months, the Atlanta Braves’ season has finally come to an end. It couldn’t have gone much worse. Relative to preseason expectations, Atlanta underperformed the most of any team in baseball. The catch? It was pretty much out of the Braves’ control the whole time.
Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. both suffered season-ending injuries literal days into the campaign. Atlanta’s Cy Young candidate and reigning MVP were wiped from the board in an instant. From there, the Braves battled through adverse development after adverse development, including prolonged absences for Sean Murphy, Michael Harris, Ozzie Albies, and Austin Riley.
If a Braves star wasn’t hurt, he was underperforming. Matt Olson was not “bad” this season, but he was leagues removed from the soaring heights of last season. Before his injury. Riley was in a similar funk. Marcell Ozuna was the only position player to earn an All-Star berth for Atlanta. He actually left a slight indent on the MVP race, but too often it was Ozuna alone carrying the weight for this Braves offense…