{"id":628763,"date":"2026-05-07T11:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/628763\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:32:11","slug":"four-keys-to-the-braves-hot-start-from-matt-olsons-bat-to-pitching-depth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/628763\/","title":{"rendered":"Four keys to the Braves\u2019 hot start, from Matt Olson\u2019s bat to pitching depth"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend at Dodger Stadium, the best team in baseball will take the field, and it\u2019s not the one that carries a $397 million payroll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That distinction belongs to the Atlanta Braves, who will arrive in Los Angeles with a 26-12 record (no worse than tied for the best in the game) and at least an eight-game lead in the NL East after Wednesday\u2019s 3-1 loss in Seattle. During the grueling marathon of a 162-game season, the ultimate luxury is a head start.<\/p>\n

How did they get here? Here are four factors contributing to Atlanta\u2019s historic start, one that saw the club achieve its best start to a season since 1892.<\/p>\n

The fixed anchor: Matt Olson<\/p>\n

At the heart of Atlanta\u2019s dominance is Matt Olson, who has started the season putting up MVP-caliber numbers, with a 1.059 OPS, 13 home runs and 33 RBIs. The Braves have made every penny of the 32-year-old\u2019s eight-year, $168 million extension count, as he\u2019s played in every game since arriving in a trade ahead of the 2022 season.<\/p>\n

Olson provides the Braves a high floor of elite power production. He is the constant in an equation that most teams have to recalculate every offseason. Olson ranks in the top 5 percent of the league with a 19.4 percent barrel rate and a 93.4 mph average exit velocity generated by a bat speed of 74.6 mph.<\/p>\n

The cost-controlled catalyst: Drake Baldwin<\/p>\n

While Olson represents the established foundation, Drake Baldwin is breaking through. The 2025 NL Rookie of the Year has avoided a sophomore slump, blowing past many expectations with a .303 average, nine home runs and 30 RBIs. But what has made Baldwin\u2019s season impressive is his plate discipline. His .379 OBP shows he is commanding the strike zone with an approach similar to that of longtime Atlanta backstop Brian McCann.<\/p>\n

This season, Baldwin has an 86 percent in-zone contact rate, nearly on par with McCann\u2019s career rate of 89.7 percent.<\/p>\n

Getting premium offensive production from the catcher position is rare; getting it from a pre-arbitration, homegrown second-year player making the league minimum is like finding a gold mine.<\/p>\n

Pitching depth<\/p>\n

Over the offseason, the Braves didn\u2019t make any moves to bolster the rotation, a shift away from buying premium pitching. The early injuries to Hurston Waldrep, AJ Smith-Shawver and Spencer Schwellenbach only added more concern to the approach.<\/p>\n

The Braves, however, have seamlessly pivoted to their farm system. JR Ritchie clinched a memorable victory in his debut last month \u2014 allowing a home run on the first pitch of his MLB career but earning the win \u2014 while 20-year-old right-hander Didier Fuentes was fast-tracked to provide crucial, high-strikeout versatility. Those contributions have been backed by an organic player-development machine that has allowed the club to maintain a 3.22 team ERA without burning cash or prospect capital.<\/p>\n

Lineup insulation<\/p>\n

The Braves have hit 55 home runs, second to the Yankees (61). But unlike its power-heavy blueprint in 2023, Atlanta\u2019s lineup isn\u2019t overly reliant on the long ball.<\/p>\n

Opponents can\u2019t just \u201cpitch around\u201d the stars when Ozzie Albies is returning to form. The second baseman has a career-high 160 OPS+ this season, up from the 89 he posted in an injury-plagued 2025. Meanwhile,\u00a0Mauricio Dub\u00f3n, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Astros, has a .741 OPS while filling in for Ha-Seong Kim. The club is also receiving a bounce-back campaign from Michael Harris II, the 2022 NL Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend at Dodger Stadium, the best team in baseball will take the field, and it\u2019s not the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2111,363,99],"class_list":["post-628763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}