The Braves are leaving the heat behind and heading north, at least for a few days, as their road trip opens in Minnesota before the schedule gets even stranger. After finishing a 3-3 homestand on Sunday, Atlanta now starts a four-city trip that includes a makeup game on Chicago’s South Side and a Sunday stop in Williamsport, PA.
Minnesota is first, and the matchup comes at a decent time for the Braves. The Twins are still hanging around in the playoff race at 60-65, even after a rough August that followed a strong July.
They got to 82 wins in 2024 and 70 last year, and this season they’re just 1.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. Their profile is a little odd: they’re a top-ten club by wRC+, but that production is propped up by a top-ten xwOBA overperformance, since they’re actually bottom ten by xwOBA.
The bigger concern has been keeping runs off the board, with both the defense and the pitching staff grading poorly. Joe Ryan and Andrew Morris have put together solid pitching seasons, but beyond that, there isn’t a ton to hang your hat on.
Atlanta’s opener will be Martin Perez, who spent the 2019 season with the Twins. Perez has delivered exactly the kind of season the Braves likely expected when they brought him in, even if it hasn’t been flashy.
His line sits at 71/102/100 in ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-. He’s also in the middle of a three-start scoreless streak, though the numbers inside that run are a little less pristine: 0/69/94 with an 11/6 K/BB ratio across 16 innings.
His last outing against the Mets was especially slippery, with a 2/3 K/BB ratio and no runs charged. One thing that stands out during this stretch is the ground-ball rate, which has jumped sharply; two of his four best starts by grounder rate have come in these last three outings.
Minnesota will send Bailey Ober to the mound, and his season has been steady in a very ordinary way. Through 18 starts and 99 innings, he’s posted a 111/115/118 line, with an xERA in that same neighborhood.
Like several Twins pitchers, he was better in July than he has been in August. His most recent start was a rough one against the Orioles, and the outing before that was a strange six-inning game in which he recorded neither a walk nor a strikeout.
Over his last four starts, he’s at 137/125/133. Ober was once an above-average starter, but his velocity dropped sharply in 2025 and has fallen again this year.
If the Braves are looking to keep the bats warm while the trip begins, he’s a favorable place to start.
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Now the early returns in New York have brought that risk back into focus. Fried has been sidelined again by elbow trouble, a development that feels uncomfortably familiar to anyone who watched his Braves tenure closely, because arm issues and Tommy John surgery were already part of his history. It is the sort of reminder Atlanta cant help but notice, especially with the decision not to match New Yorks offer looking a little more understandable in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Send A Clear Message With Latest Catching Move
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Robinson was released by the Dodgers about a week earlier, and Atlanta already had a prior connection to him after claiming him off waivers last September. His big-league time has been brief, but the Braves clearly see value in the broader package, the kind of depth move that can matter over a long season even if the offensive numbers never jump off the page. [Read more 🡒]