These Braves players need to step up before the season spirals out of control.
There is no cause for panic yet, but the Braves are going to need some guys to step up to navigate some early season obstacles in 2024.
Early in any baseball season is prime overreaction season and the Atlanta Braves have certainly not been immune to that in 2024. Despite the fact that they have led the NL East since the start of the season and the rest of the divison has shown little interest in pushing the Braves early, losing Spencer Strider to an arm injury combined with some crummy losses and Max Fried’s struggles have many Braves fans thinking that the sky is falling.
This is everyone’s reminder that the baseball season is a long season and it is probably best to not get too hung up on individual game results or events especially early in the season. There is a lot of baseball that needs to be played out before we will learn much and at the end of the day, every team is going to lose 50 games and win 50 games. It is those middle 62 games that will determine who is going to be playing in October and who is going to be left wondering where things went wrong.
That said, the Braves can’t afford to just assume that games in April and May don’t count because, well, they absolutely do. Given some of the obstacles that the Braves are up against (which are not dissimilar to what they had to deal with last year), they are going to need have some guys step up in a big way.
Here are some of the Braves that need to step up before it is too late
Players aren’t on this list because of lack of effort or even anything beyond some dumb early season luck. However, it is undeniable that when guys get hurt or things start to go sideways, the only way that that gets fixed is by guys rising to the occasion to help put wins up on the board. Here are a few of the more important Braves players that the team is going to need that sort of performance from going forward if Atlanta has any hope of getting where they want to go.
Travis d’Arnaud
Asking a 35 year old catcher with a lot of mileage on his body and with a history of injuries including concussions to play almost every day and contribute at a high level is a big ask. However, the fundamental problem is that Atlanta’s primary catcher, Sean Murphy, is out for a while with an oblique injury and that means the Braves have no choice but to hope that TdA can turn back the clock at least for a little while.
As of 4/12, d’Arnaud is slashing .214/.267/.321 in his 30 plate appearances so far in 2024. While asking him to become the version of himself from 2020 where he put up a .919 OPS isn’t going to happen, being a .700+ OPS guy at the plate while continuing to be an excellent shepherd of the Braves’ pitching staff would go a long way.
