At the quarter mark, here’s how the Braves earned MLB’s best record

A quarter of the way through the 2026 season (25.3% to be precise) and everything is coming up Braves.

Has the planning for a parade down Battery Avenue begun? Of course not. But for a team that was maybe (maybe?) expected to scrap and claw for a postseason berth, having the best record in baseball has been an ambush that cannot be understated.

“We’re playing well,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said Sunday in Los Angeles. “The thing I like is when we do have a tough one, or I tend to say when we have a clunker, we haven’t had many of the clunkers, but when we do have a tough one, we seem to bounce back really well and play well right away. There haven’t been any prolonged stretches where we’re not playing good baseball. We turn it around quickly and that’s a great sign.”

Weiss is correct.

The Braves (28-13) have only had two losing streaks, a stretch of three straight losses in early April and back-to-back defeats on this most recent trip. They have only lost one of the 13 series they have played. They’re 6-1 in rubber games.

It has been a remarkable start for a team that most felt was likely the third-best club in the NL East.

Here’s a closer look at how the Braves have accumulated the most wins (28) in MLB and go into the week with a nine-game lead over three teams in the division, as well as what’s to come:

Offense

Wild to think the Braves have done what they’ve done offensively with Ronald Acuña Jr. having not really found his stride (and currently being on the injured list with a hamstring ailment), Austin Riley only recently picking up steam and Mike Yastrzemski hitting .200 in 115 at-bats.

Yet the Braves are at +87 in run differential, 14 more runs than the Yankees’ mark of 73. They have an MLB-best 383 hits, 223 RBIs, .270 batting average, .450 slugging and .784 OPS.

“I think everybody is pulling for each other. If one guy doesn’t get a hit, the other guy will. And that’s the biggest mindset,” Braves utility man Mauricio Dubón said. “Different guy every day. Keep passing the baton.”

Dubón, like designated hitter Dominic Smith and reserve Jorge Mateo, has been a godsend to the Braves lineup. It helps that Matt Olson is putting up MVP numbers and Drake Baldwin, Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris would be All-Stars if the game were played this month.

Pitching

Bryce Elder and Chris Sale are bona fide Cy Young candidates at this point. Martín Pérez has been invaluable in his five starts, and in his willingness to take the ball whenever while being an important asset in the clubhouse. Spencer Strider is only two starts into his season and looked unhittable in the second of two. Rookie JR Ritchie was expected to contribute at some point in ’26, and boy has he.

Braves starters have the best ERA (3.03) in baseball and they’re holding opponents to a .206 average, also an MLB best.

Atlanta’s bullpen, despite some hiccups on the road trip, still has MLB’s third-best ERA (3.31). Impressive considering Dylan Dodd is currently on a rehab assignment and Raisel Iglesias missed a spell with a sore shoulder.

The roster

The Braves already have had to shapeshift their roster quite a bit, and that won’t change as this month continues.

Ha-Seong Kim, who has gone 5-for-19 in five games with a double and an RBI with Triple-A Gwinnett (and was 3-for-9 with four walks in four games Double-A Columbus), will make his 2026 debut soon, likely this month.

When Kim does return, he’ll be the 16th position player to don a Braves uniform. That list includes outfielder José Azocar, infielders Luke Williams and Jim Jarvis, and catcher Jonah Heim.

Later this summer, the Braves will have decisions to make on Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep and AJ Smith-Shawver, a trio of pitchers returning from significant elbow injuries. Who joins the team? Whose place on the roster do they take?

The writing is on the wall for the Braves do be so-called “buyers” at the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Barring an inexplicable collapse in the standings, the Braves will be a position to make a run at this thing, meaning the roster’s current makeup almost certainly will look drastically different in the later months than it did in the early ones.

NL East watch

To think the Braves will run away with a division title is fool’s gold.

The Mets (15-25) are, quite frankly, a mess. No one would be faulted for counting them out of the race, yet with their payroll and talent level, it’s not out of the question.

The Marlins and Nationals are each three games under .500 and have proven to be pesky at times. There isn’t much concrete evidence either will be players in a postseason run.