The Braves are heading into the offseason with the kind of core most clubs would love to build around, but the margins still matter. Atlanta won the NL East, got past the Phillies in the wild card round, and then ran into the Dodgers in the NLDS. That was a solid bounce-back after the injury-ravaged 76-86 season in 2025, though the roster still has some gaps to patch if the Braves want to be true championship threats next year.
The headline here is stability. Most of the everyday lineup is lined up to carry over into 2027, with Drake Baldwin, Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Michael Harris II, and Ronald Acuna Jr. all expected to be in their usual spots. Mike Yastrzemski also figures to stay in the corner-outfield mix in a platoon role.
Atlanta’s contract sheet already shows how much of the future is spoken for. The Braves have $190MM in 2027 guarantees if the Acuna and Albies options are picked up, and $439MM in total future commitments under that same assumption. Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Spencer Strider, Michael Harris II, Robert Suarez, Sean Murphy, Chris Sale, Jurickson Profar, Mike Yastrzemski, and Reynaldo Lopez are all on guaranteed deals that run through multiple seasons.
Acuna is the easiest call. The Braves are expected to exercise his $17MM club option for 2027, and there’s another $17MM club option for 2028 waiting behind it.
After returning from a torn ACL, he was excellent in 2025, but his 2026 line dipped to .255/.345/.451 with 20 homers over 469 plate appearances. Even so, that was still a 120 wRC+ season, and the numbers came despite him being limited to 107 games by a pair of left hamstring strains.
He also dealt with a sore right knee in the playoffs, which helped explain his quieter postseason.
Even with that dip, the Braves would be getting a player whose baseline is still far above ordinary. There have been whispers that Atlanta could explore moving him while his value remains high, but his upside remains obvious. If health management means more DH days in 2027, that seems like a small price if he’s producing anywhere near his best.
Albies is the more complicated decision. Atlanta has a $7MM club option for 2027, and the expectation is that they’ll pick it up despite a third straight middling offensive season. Since Opening Day 2024, Albies has posted an 89 wRC+ and a .242/.300/.385 line over 1785 plate appearances, with that offense and average defense combining for 3.8 fWAR over the last three seasons.
Still, the contract is modest enough that other teams would have interest if the Braves decided to shop him. Some clubs might believe a change of scenery could help. Atlanta could also look at the bigger picture and decide that keeping a known presence at second base for one more year makes sense, especially with a more obvious hole on the other side of the middle infield.
In Other News...
Braves Jurickson Profar Situation Just Took A More Troubling Turn
Jurickson Profars situation with the Braves had already become one of the more jarring off-field stories in recent memory after MLB handed him an 80-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs under the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. A second suspension, announced before the following season, pushed the matter far beyond a standard discipline issue and turned it into a major roster and payroll setback for Atlanta.
Profar then reportedly went silent with people around the team, changing his contact information and cutting off communication just as the Braves were trying to absorb the fallout. The later penalty carried even steeper consequences, with MLB issuing a 162-game suspension for a second PED violation and wiping out his full $15 million salary, deepening a situation that had already become troubling for the club. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Prospects Already Face Tough Questions In Arizona
The Arizona Fall League has offered the Braves a useful look at several prospects who needed either extra at-bats or a chance to prove where they stand after injuries and uneven stretches. Tate Southisene is one of the names worth monitoring most closely, and the early returns suggest he is moving well again after the wrist injury that ended his 2026 season. Owen Carey and Isaiah Drake have both been getting plenty of run in the desert, while the organization is also using the assignment to keep tabs on pitchers who need innings more than anything else.
The challenge, of course, is that the results have not exactly been clean across the board. Briggs McKenzie has had trouble finding the strike zone, and Tanner Bauman has been searching for sharper outings as well, leaving the Braves with more questions than answers for now. For a group of players that is supposed to be using Arizona as a springboard, the Fall League has already become a reminder that development rarely moves in a straight line. [Read more 🡒]
Former Braves Stars Came Up Small When October Pressure Hit
October has a way of narrowing the spotlight, and a few familiar Braves faces found that out the hard way this postseason. Freddie Freeman, Max Fried and Dansby Swanson all went into the playoffs carrying expectations with their new clubs, and while each had moments that reminded everyone why they were so important in Atlanta, the overall results did not quite match the stage.
Freeman was especially notable after turning in a strong series against the Braves, then running into a much rougher stretch when Milwaukee arrived in the NLCS. Fried handled the Wild Card round well before his own struggles in the NLDS, and Swanson could not get his offense going at all during the Cubs' series with the Padres, leaving another former Brave searching for a better October finish. [Read more 🡒]