The Atlanta Braves have less than a month before the trade deadline to turn their disastrous 2025 season around.
It is safe to say the 2025 season for the Atlanta Braves has not gone as planned. With a 39-50 record, they sit in fourth place in the National League East, 13.5 games back of the first-place Philadelphia Phillies. Atlanta remains eight and a half games back in the Wild Card standings as well. What once was a powerful, deep lineup has become a liability through their first 89 games of the campaign.
With the trade deadline less than a month away, the Braves find themselves struggling to reach the postseason. They must right the ship to be active buyers before July 31.
Pitching Staff Keeps Producing Despite Injuries
Entering the season, more question marks surrounded the Braves on the mound than in the box. SP Max Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million contract with the New York Yankees in free agency. Key reliever A.J. Minter went to the New York Mets, and SP Charlie Morton moved on to the Baltimore Orioles. However, Atlanta’s offensive struggles are of much bigger concern. The pitching staff has more than held its own.
Braves’ pitching ranks 3rd across MLB and 2nd in the National League with a 3.77 ERA this season. SP Spencer Schwellenbach emerged as a legitimate top-of-the-rotation starter, posting a 3.09 ERA with 108 strikeouts. In fact, for a while Atlanta had three pitchers inside the top ten in strikeouts: Schwellenbach, SP Grant Holmes, and SP Chris Sale. Unfortunately, Holmes is now the only healthy one, as Schwellenbach has an elbow fracture.
Sale, the 2024 Cy Young winner, went on the injured list backdated to June 19 with a fractured rib cage. He hurt it diving for a OF Juan Soto ground ball in a stellar outing against the New York Mets. On July 1, Atlanta transferred their ace to the 60-day IL, meaning he cannot return before the second half of August. Sale will not be available until after the all-important trade deadline.
LOOK at this play by Chris Sale to begin the 9th inning! 🤯#MLBTonight | @Braves pic.twitter.com/LRYyAzNvNo
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) June 19, 2025
Replacements are Struggling
This injury came just weeks after SP AJ Smith-Shawver left his May 29 start against the Phillies after experiencing elbow discomfort. Days later, the Braves announced the 22-year-old starter would miss the rest of the season due to Tommy John Surgery. Smith-Shawver maintained a consistent starting spot for the first time in his young career, posting a 3.86 ERA and 42 strikeouts over 44.1 innings.
SP Bryce Elder and 20-year-old rookie SP Didier Fuentes have replaced Sale and Smith-Shawver in the rotation, but both have struggled. SP Spencer Strider has also not looked like himself since coming back from a shortened 2024 campaign. Atlanta’s star pitcher has a 3.93 ERA over ten starts this season. His fastball, which normally sits from 97-99 miles per hour, has dipped near the 95 MPH range since his return on April 16. Strider also missed over a month after his first start due to a hamstring strain.
Offensive Woes Come from All Over the Lineup
Just two seasons ago, the Braves tied the single-season homer record with 307, set by the 2019 Minnesota Twins. 1B Matt Olson clubbed 54 home runs in 2023, taking over the franchise record from OF Andruw Jones. Fast forwarding to 2025, Atlanta ranks 18th in homers, 22nd in OPS, and 20th in strikeouts. The team fired long-time hitting coach Kevin Seitzer after a disappointing 2024 campaign and brought in Tim Hyers. However, this move proved to be far from a remedy.
Too Many Strikeouts
OF Michael Harris has not looked like himself at the plate. He carries a .212 batting average, .236 on-base percentage, .555 OPS, and 0.2 WAR on the season. His stellar defense keeps him in the lineup, but the 2022 Rookie of the Year has to change his approach at the plate. Harris chases pitches out of the strike zone far too often, resulting in quick two-strike counts and punchouts. Snitker gave Harris two days off, June 28 and 29, to take a step back. He also had Sunday’s game off against a lefty on the mound.
Michael Harris II and Braves hitting coach Tim Hyers talked about Harris’ struggles, which reached a point where the center fielder sat the past two days https://t.co/Q6PVJ8zVby
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 30, 2025
“At some point, maybe something like this does calm things down for him, and that’s what I hope for him,” said the Atlanta skipper.
2B Ozzie Albies has produced similar numbers to Harris, posting a .222 average, .293 on-base percentage, and a .314 slugging percentage. Both players’ tendencies to chase pitches put them in a hole before the at-bat starts. Harris already has 73 strikeouts on the season after punching out 94 times in 2024.
While 3B Austin Riley has found his groove lately, he also carries the same strikeout numbers, this year and last, as Albies. This team was built to hit the ball out of the park. As the strikeouts rise and the home runs decrease, a team built to slug will struggle. The Braves find themselves in this predicament right now.
The Trade Deadline Looms
After a fast start to the season, DH Marcell Ozuna’s numbers have steeply declined. The Braves’ designated hitter slugged 40 and 39 homers the last two seasons before posting just 11 before the start of July this season. He was an All-Star and ranked fourth in MVP voting in 2024, but he has struggled mightily since the beginning of June. Ozuna had just 19 hits in 101 June at-bats. The 34-year-old designated hitter is also playing through a hip injury, which is limiting his production. He enters free agency after this season, and if the Braves are sellers at the deadline, contenders could look to see if Ozuna can find his rhythm down the stretch.
The clock is ticking on Atlanta’s postseason chances. The Braves must right the ship over the next three weeks, or they could be sellers at the deadline in a disastrous campaign.
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