Braves need for All-Star break to be therapeutic for Austin Riley

What could be the most important four days of Austin Riley’s season are less than a week away.

As you likely know, the Braves linchpin third baseman is in the midst of the worst half-season of his career as his career trajectory continues to descend. He has hit only in the slightest of spurts and largely failed to make an impact.

His productivity is below standards for virtually any major-league regular, but especially for a player who is the highest-paid player on his team and has two Silver Slugger Awards to his credit.

Through Tuesday’s game at Pittsburgh, Riley was hitting .212 (career average: .265), slugging .340 (.478) with an OPS of .631 (.808). Playing in all 90 of the Braves’ games, his OPS was 138th of 150 qualified hitters and second to last of 23 qualified third basemen.

Before this year, the poorest 90-game stretch for OPS that Riley had ever had in a single season was .740, in 2025. This is new territory.

Riley’s struggles have not been for a lack of effort, which is why the upcoming All-Star break could be so pivotal for the two-time All-Star.

If an extended break from the game isn’t what will help him recover at least some portion of his form, how many other reasons are there to think that he will eventually find it?

If a mental break doesn’t prove to be his elixir, then what?

How long would manager Walt Weiss continue to keep playing a .210 hitter at third base? It was easier to be patient as the team soared to the best record in baseball, but presumably less so now as the Braves’ pitching woes have applied more pressure on the lineup to produce.

Could the Braves afford such ineffective play from a key offensive position in their chase for postseason glory?

Here’s a possibly meaningful statistic, crunched by Stathead. Since 1975, there have been just five teams that won 90 games with a third baseman who played at least 130 games at that position and had an OPS of .650 or below. (Riley was at .631 through Tuesday.)

The last time was 2011.

Only one team with such a third baseman has made it to the World Series since 1968.

It would suggest that the Braves will be hard pressed to go far if Riley is creating drag for the whole season.

As dramatic as his drop-off has been, the belief here is that he can be the slugger he once was, or at least something approaching it, for the very unscientific reason that he did it before for multiple seasons and that age shouldn’t be a factor for him at 29.

Riley is coming back from season-ending surgery for a core injury, but measurables such as his average bat speed and ability to continue barreling up pitches suggest that the injury is not the issue.

Before Monday’s game at Truist Park against the Mets, Weiss suggested that Riley’s challenge could be more mental than physical. But he also expressed his belief that Riley can come back. The Braves need not look any further than their lineup for evidence.

Last year at this time, center fielder Michael Harris II was as helpless at the plate as Riley is this year and second baseman Ozzie Albies wasn’t far behind.

But a year later, Albies is headed to the All-Star Game and Harris deserves to be.

“You put in the work, there’s a really good track record, so it makes you believe that, in the end, it’s going to work out,” Weiss said.

And it may just be that time away from the game is what Riley needs.

Monday, I asked him about his plans for his four-day All-Star break, which begins on Monday. He answered even before I finished the question.

“I’m going home,” he said, seated at his locker. “We’ll go home, take a mental break.”

Home is Southaven, Mississippi. The plan was to enjoy time with family and friends.

“It could do some good,” Riley said. “It’s been a grind.”

The tone in his voice made clear his weariness.

If you care to see them, there are signs that he’s coming around. Over the past seven games through Tuesday, he had hit .269 with an OPS of .768, including his first home run since May 20. He had reached base in all seven games. He did also strike out nine times.

Riley said that he has been working on keeping his hips and legs in a position to better stay on pitches.

“A lot of this stuff is feel and bad habits that I’ve been in and trying to get it worked out,” he said. “I’m going to have good days, going to have some bad days. But, like I said, I think we’re figuring out the root cause of everything and just trying to move in the right direction.”

Riley and the Braves need him to keep advancing.