The Braves won’t have to sweat the 2027 option calls on two of their biggest names, but that doesn’t mean the road ahead is clean.
Ronald Acuña Jr. and Ozzie Albies both have club options waiting at the end of the 2026 season, and those numbers make the immediate choices pretty simple. Acuña’s option is for $17 million.
Albies’ is for $7 million. Atlanta has generally steered clear of the kind of player-controlled opt-outs that complicate other clubs’ winters, preferring standard deals or contracts with club options, and this is another example of that approach paying off.
The bigger issue is what comes after the easy part.
Acuña and Albies could be on the same roster in 2027 for what might be the last time. Albies is set to reach free agency in 2028 unless the Braves extend him before next season, which would make that winter his first trip to the market and his age-31 season.
If the season ended today, he would be sitting on three straight years of a sub 100 wRC+ and sub 1.7 fWAR. He’s still a starting second baseman, but whether Atlanta sees that spot as one worth upgrading is an open question.
The Braves also have rising infield prospects like Tate Southisene, Alex Lodise, and John Gil, so any clue about how they view Albies may not come quickly.
Acuña’s situation is different, but not exactly settled. His 2027 year is the first non-guaranteed season in his contract, and at $17 million, that’s an obvious pickup for Alex Anthopoulos. Beyond that, though, Acuña has only one more season of team control after 2027, which means the extension conversation could get loud as soon as next season starts.
Durability concerns will keep fueling the argument that Acuña shouldn’t be locked in long term. But the other side of the debate is just as clear: his MVP ceiling makes him the kind of player who gets paid, whether that ends up being by the Braves or somebody else.
Atlanta’s next option decisions look easy enough. The winters after that are where things start to get messy.
In Other News...
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For the Braves, Hartmans inclusion matters because it signals real momentum, not just a hot stretch. He is part of a class of prospects whose performance has started to reshape how theyre viewed across the minors, and that kind of upward move can alter a teams internal picture in a hurry. The only question now is how long he can keep turning that attention into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]
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September used to offer more room to carry extra arms and a deeper bench, but the current limits have narrowed those choices to 28 active players and 14 pitchers. For Atlanta, that creates a more difficult late-season equation: every roster move has to do more than just fill a spot, and the lack of extra flexibility can shape how often certain players are used, how aggressively pitchers are managed and how the Braves navigate the final weeks. [Read more 🡒]
Ray Kerrs Braves Return Was Far Less Certain Than Fans Realized
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What makes the story stand out is how uncertain this path once looked, even after the rehab work began. Getting back from that kind of surgery is never straightforward, and Kerrs climb from the long recovery process to a spot on the active major league picture took far more time and patience than it may have seemed from the outside. For a Braves club always watching for arms it can trust, his return is a reminder that some roster help arrives only after months of quiet uncertainty. [Read more 🡒]