The Atlanta Braves can’t seem to catch a break with injuries, and it’s starting to feel like a broken record.
Last season marked their first playoff miss since 2017, finishing with just 76 wins. Injuries decimated the roster – pitchers dropped like flies, and the core trio of Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, and Ozzie Albies all spent time on the IL.
The injury bug followed them straight into the offseason.
Just weeks after signing Ha-Seong Kim, the Braves learned he’d miss the first few months of 2026 after needing surgery to repair a torn tendon in his finger. He slipped and fell on ice – the kind of freak accident that perfectly captures Atlanta’s recent luck.
Last week brought more bad news. Pitchers Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurtston Waldrop were moved to the 60-day IL, both needing elbow surgeries to remove loose bodies.
That’s a pile of injuries before they’ve even reached the halfway point of Spring Training. The pressure’s now squarely on the healthy players to stay that way.
But if they can manage it, Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly thinks the Braves could bounce back in a big way from that 76-win disaster.
“There’s just too much talent on this team to think they won’t at least improve from 76 games. There are injury concerns in the lineup as well, but when healthy, a group of Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Drake Baldwin, Ozzie Albies, Jurickson Profar, and Michael Harris II should lead the Braves back to playoff contention in 2026.”
Kelly’s got a point. When you look at that lineup on paper, it’s hard to see how they don’t improve significantly.
A division title might be tough to grab depending on what their NL East rivals did this offseason. You can never count out the competition in that division.
But here’s the thing – if the Braves can keep their star players on the field for most of the season, there’s simply too much talent here to keep losing games at last year’s rate. The pieces are their for a playoff push. They just need to stay healthy long enough to put them together.
