The Braves have built a habit of collecting Silver Slugger hardware, and the run might not be slowing down any time soon. Atlanta already owns the third-most Silver Slugger Awards of any team over the award’s five-decade history, trailing only the Yankees and Red Sox. With another division title in the books and several star bats still under team control, the next wave of winners feels less like a long shot and more like a matter of time.
At catcher, Drake Baldwin looks like the cleanest bet. He may not grab the award this year, with Diamondbacks backstop Gabriel Moreno having an impressive season, but Baldwin’s case is already strong.
The 2025 NL Rookie of the Year has kept rolling, launching 24 homers and posting the second-highest wRC+ among NL catchers. Even if this season comes up short, his path to a Silver Slugger seems wide open over the next few years.
First base points right back to Matt Olson. He’s already won one Silver Slugger in Atlanta, and another one in 2026 would not be a surprise at all.
His slash line is a bit below the standard he’s set, but he still leads all NL first basemen in fWAR and home runs. With no clear favorite in the race this year, power could decide it.
And if Olson misses this one, he still has at least three more seasons in a Braves uniform to add another.
Second base is where the picture gets murkier. Ozzie Albies has long held down the spot, but his time in Atlanta may be nearing the end.
He has just one team option left, and his bat has been below average in each of the last three seasons. That makes another Silver Slugger look unlikely.
The next Braves second baseman to win one may already be in the pipeline: Tate Southisene. Atlanta’s first-round pick in the 2025 draft moved quickly through the minors, reached Double-A at 19, and saw his season cut short by an errant pitch.
Still, he posted an .875 OPS across three levels, and if that production carries over, the award would be within reach.
Austin Riley remains the best guess at third base, even though his own bat has cooled in recent seasons. Unlike Albies, he’s locked in for at least another six years, and the contract length matters here.
Injuries have also piled up since 2024, leaving some question about whether he ever fully recovered from the abdominal injury that ended his 2025 season. Even so, his past success and his long runway with the club make him the most likely next Braves third baseman to win another Silver Slugger.
Shortstop could eventually belong to John Gil. The Braves have other names in the mix, including Southisene and Alex Lodise, but Gil looks like the more probable answer right now.
He played 130 games between High-A and Double-A this season, hit .262/.357/.392, and got better as he climbed. He also doubled his previous high in homers and stole 60 bases.
The outfield is loaded with familiar names and one fast-rising prospect. In left, Eric Hartman is the upside play.
The 20-year-old surged through the prospect ranks this year, and in High-A he hit .73/.364/.525 in 94 games before moving on to Double-A. That mix of speed and power had Braves fans thinking of a young Ronald Acuña Jr.
Hartman struggled after the promotion, but if he adjusts the way he did earlier in the year, he could become the first Braves left fielder to win a Silver Slugger since Justin Upton in 2014.
Center field belongs to Michael Harris II, at least in this projection. He stumbled through much of 2025, but his 2026 rebound has restored some confidence that a Silver Slugger season is coming.
He has been one of the top three hitting center fielders this year, though Pete Crow-Armstrong has blocked him from more national attention as the MVP front-runner. Still, a future award-winning season for Harris is easy enough to picture.
Right field is Ronald Acuña Jr.’s spot, as long as he can stay on the field. The 2023 NL MVP has shown again that when he’s rolling, he can be one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball.
He had some rough patches in 2026, but his September surge reminded everyone what he can do when he gets hot. If he puts together another healthy season over the next two years, he should collect his fourth Silver Slugger.
There’s also one more possibility at catcher that could eventually reshape the picture. Baldwin still has four more years of team control, and he’s signed through 2029, so Atlanta could use him as a full-time DH in one of those seasons.
Since August 5, when Murphy returned from the IL, Baldwin has started at DH in 24 of his 43 games. Given the wear and tear of catching and his bat-first value, it’s at least plausible the Braves shift him into a semi-permanent DH role for a season and let the offense do the talking.
In Other News...
Braves Playoff Rotation Just Lost A Starter At The Worst Time
The Braves playoff rotation took a hit at the worst possible time Monday, when the club announced that Martn Prez is headed to the injured list with lower back inflammation. It is a late setback for a team trying to line up its pitching for October, and it leaves Atlanta with less breathing room than it wanted as the postseason gets underway.
Prez was in position to matter in the NL Wild Card Series, and his absence also carries over into the NLDS if the Braves advance. With only a short window to adjust, Atlanta now has to rethink how it wants to piece together its early-round pitching plans while waiting to see how the rotation picture settles. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Could Dangle Big Names To Fix A Roster Problem
The Braves have already wrapped up the NL East, but the work ahead in Atlanta is likely to be less about celebrating the division title and more about figuring out how to smooth out a roster issue that has lingered beneath the surface. With an offseason in front of them, the front office could have to weigh whether the cleanest path to improvement means moving from a position of depth or from a few recognizable names who still carry real value in the market.
Alex Lodise, Cam Caminiti, Eric Hartman, Ozzie Albies, Spencer Strider and Reynaldo Lopez are among the players mentioned as possible trade candidates, and each brings a different mix of recent performance and contract considerations that could shape how other clubs view them. For the Braves, the calculation is less about attaching a label to any one player and more about deciding which pieces are most useful in solving the problem at hand without weakening the core that got them back to the top of the division. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Leave Cincinnati With One Big October Concern
The Braves spent a weekend in Cincinnati with little left to decide in the standings, but plenty to monitor as October approaches. Ronald Acua Jr. left with a shin contusion, though the early tests came back clean, and Atlanta also got a mixed bag on the field with a shutout loss, a narrow extra-innings win and another close defeat. There were bright spots along the way, including work from pitchers JR Ritchie and Chris Sale, plus contributions from Matt Olson and Austin Riley, but the bigger picture was less about the record than about how the group is holding up.
For a club that already has its division and postseason position locked in, the final tune-ups are about health and rhythm, and Acuas status now sits at the center of that conversation. The Braves do not need to chase anything in the standings, which makes every late-game decision and every awkward step on the bases feel a little more important than usual, especially with October closing in and the margin for error shrinking in a different way. [Read more 🡒]