Braves overcame much in 2026 en route to a division title

In the late hours of Wednesday night, in the clubhouse where the Braves reside at Truist Park, there was an air of acceptance and finality.

Players shook hands, hugged, shared a knowing smile they would see each other again in the future — but where and when was not an immediate concern. They had been beaten by a better team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two-time defending World Series champions, in four games in the National League Division Series. And that was OK, given the context.

The 2026 Braves were overachievers. In no way should that have any sort of negative connotation. If anything, because of how they performed through the first four months of the season, they deserved a little more help and perhaps a little more good fortune.

“All the things they overcame — devastating injuries from literally the first day of spring training on. Lost four starters, but we also lost our left fielder, our shortstop, a catcher. And (that) created opportunities for guys,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “And that was the message when it happened, that there’s going to be a lot of opportunities created, and it was up to them to step up and take advantage of it. And they did. A lot of guys, like I said, that weren’t on the radar made huge impacts.”

Start from the beginning.

The Braves won just 76 games in 2025. The bar had been significantly lowered ahead of 2026, what with a first-year manager facing a division that featured the talented Phillies and the high-priced Mets.

FanGraphs projected the Braves to win 84 games. Baseball America and MLB.com predicted the Braves to finish third in the NL East. BetMGM had the Braves’ win total at 86.5. Only the projection model PECOTA was high on the Braves, giving them an expected win total of 92.

Many of those prognostications were made before outfielder Jurickson Profar was suspended for the entire season, before catcher Sean Murphy broke his finger in May, before pitcher Joey Wentz tore an ACL in March or before starting pitchers Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep and Spencer Strider were essentially lost for the season. They may have considered shortstop Ha-Seong Kim’s finger injury from January but that setback didn’t take the Braves from favorites to afterthoughts.

Then Weiss’ team caught a little bit of lightning in a bottle.

Dominic Smith, a veteran first baseman joined the team before opening day and made the roster as a designated hitter. He had an OPS of .925 in March and April and .770 in May.

Martín Pérez, a 35-year-old who had only thrown 56 innings in 2025, wound up starting 26 games. The crafty, soft-tossing lefty went 9-9 with a 3.04 ERA.

Mauricio Dubón, who signed with the Braves on a one-year contract for just north of $6 million, led the team in RBI with two outs and runners in scoring position. He played shortstop, left field and center field among other positions while emerging as a clubhouse and fan favorite.

The Braves went 40-20 in their first 60 games.

But then a 9-14 record in June gave the naysayers the fodder they desired to bury the NL East leaders. Instead Weiss steadied the ship as his team never lost its grip on the NL East lead and won the division by six games.

“The projections I saw on, like, March 25th, I don’t think anybody had us making the playoffs,” Weiss said. “I think the narrative obviously shifted when we got off to a good start. But then when we had the rough June, people jumped off the train again. It’s kind of been that way. And look, I get it with the injuries we suffered over the course of the season.

“It’s been an amazing season for us. There’s been so many opportunities created because of these injuries, and guys have flourished that have gotten these opportunities. I can go right down the list. There’s several of them. And that’s been the story of our season. We’ve had these guys that weren’t really on the radar when we broke camp in the spring and ended up making a huge impact. So I get it. That’s been the narrative. I don’t think anybody’s believed it all the way through, outside of this building. As soon as we would slip, they’d just say, ‘Aha! I told you so.’ And then here we come again. That’s been the way the season’s gone.”

Yet down the stretch there was legitimate cause for concern, especially from an offensive standpoint.

Third baseman Austin Riley never emerged from the dark alley of despair that was his season: a .219 average, .654 OPS and franchise record 201 strikeouts. Right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. missed 55 games because of hamstring issues and hit just .255. First baseman Matt Olson looked like an MVP candidate four months into the year — then hit .226 in July, .226 in August and .222 over the final 24 games.

Chris Sale continued to carry the pitching staff, making himself a Cy Young Award candidate yet again. The Braves’ bullpen was one of the best in the game with reliable closer Raisel Iglesias, the consistent and steady work of Dylan Dodd and Dylan Lee and the emergence of Didier Fuentes — a starter in the minor leagues.

Pérez and Grant Holmes were solid in the starting rotation as well. Bryce Elder had his moments before succumbing to a knee injury late in the season. Atlanta tried to fill a starting pitching void by trading for Tyler Mahle in August and Mahle was nothing short of outstanding in his short tenure with the Braves.

That all led to 94 wins and a division title for a squad that was somewhat, certainly not greatly, improved by trade deadline acquisitions.

Mahle was unquestionably outstanding. The Braves, however, maybe could have added another arm alongside Mahle to bolster pitching depth, especially after Pérez and Elder were lost to injury before the postseason. Holmes was never given the opportunity to start a playoff matchup, relegated to the bullpen instead.

Offensively, outfielder Lane Thomas was brought in via trade from the Royals. He was expected, however, to strictly platoon against left-handed pitchers. Thomas hit .171 in 21 games with Atlanta and 1-for-7 with four strikeouts in the postseason (he missed the wild-card series with an intercostal strain). His platoon mate, Mike Yastrzemski, had an OPS of .689 in his first season with the Braves.

A little more offensive thump in the playoffs may have gone a long way for a Braves team that saw Olson, Acuña, Riley and catcher Drake Baldwin (the reigning NL rookie of the year) go a combined 5-for-58 with 21 strikeouts during the NLDS.

“Our focus was making sure we get there (to the playoffs),” Braves’ president of baseball operations Alex Anthopolous said Aug. 3. “There’s going to be injuries the next two months for everybody. You still have an eye on, should you be fortunate enough to get to the postseason, you’re still weighing all those things and you’re looking at all those things.”

The 2027 Braves will undoubtedly have a new look. Dubón, Pérez, Kim, Iglesias, Mahle and Smith all enter free agency. Profar is eligible to return from his 162-game suspension to play out the final year of his contract. There are a handful of pitchers, like Schwellenbach, Waldrep, Strider, JR Ritchie, Owen Murphy and AJ Smith-Shawver, to name a few, who could factor more heavily into rotation plans.

Second baseman Ozzie Albies has a club option year remaining on his contract, while Acuña will be in the first of two such years. The Braves can pick up those options or let those two cornerstones of the current roster walk.

Those personnel decisions will dictate just how large of a challenge Weiss will have ahead of 2027. If he can handle those challenges the way he handled 2026 the team will continue to be in good shape.