The Braves are walking into the postseason with a familiar opponent waiting, but the pressure on Atlanta may not be as intense as the history suggests.
Yes, this is the franchise that has been labeled a playoff disappointment more than once. Since 1991, the Braves have piled up 23 division titles, reached the postseason 25 times, and won the Commissioner’s Trophy twice.
That kind of run comes with expectations, especially when so many of those teams were loaded with talent. Still, the recent October scars are hard to ignore.
Now Atlanta gets another shot at the Phillies in the Wild Card Series, a matchup that drags up two straight playoff exits. In both 2022 and 2023, the Braves rolled through the NL East with more than 100 wins in each season, and yet they couldn’t get past Philadelphia in the NLDS. This time, the same division rival stands between them and another round.
Even so, ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle doesn’t see Atlanta as one of the postseason’s biggest pressure teams. He placed the Braves eighth out of 12 clubs in his World Series pressure rankings.
“Atlanta has a recent title, so the history part of the index has the Braves 27th,” Doolittle writes. “But there are some pressure points.
“Only three other playoff clubs have an older team age. There’s a little free agent drama coming with Raisel Iglesias and Mauricio Dubon on expiring deals, and Ozzie Albies subject to a club option.
“You wouldn’t call the Braves’ situation a pressure cooker, but this is a team built to win now.”
The Phillies ranked just ahead of them at seventh, and the case for Philadelphia carrying more weight is easy to make. This is an aging roster, one that still has the pitching to make noise but is running low on time. Once this group fades, a rebuild could follow, and the warning signs are already there: ESPN has the Phillies’ farm system ranked 28th out of 30 teams.
That makes the stakes feel different for Philadelphia. Atlanta can point to its World Series title from five years ago, a roster that still has plenty of talent locked in for the coming seasons, and a farm system that made a big jump this year.
The Braves also won 94 games even though nearly their entire rotation spent time on the IL. They may not be done competing anytime soon, and if some of their top prospects develop, they could avoid a major reset.
There is still embarrassment attached to this matchup for the Braves. Losing to the Phillies three times in the postseason would sting, especially with Atlanta having won the NL East in all three of those seasons.
But from a broader pressure standpoint, this may be the lightest the Braves have felt in October in a while. In 2022 and 2023, they looked like the clearly superior roster, and that made the burden feel much heavier.
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