The Braves are heading into the second half with a familiar kind of tension: first place in the NL East, but only by two games over the Phillies, and carrying as many questions as answers.
They sent five players to the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, which says plenty about the talent on hand. It also doesn’t hide the cracks. Atlanta has help on the way, but the roster still comes with some major uncertainty, and the first few weeks after the break could shape everything that follows.
The biggest one starts with Ronald Acuña Jr. He’s expected back after missing more than a month with his second hamstring injury of the season, and his return should matter.
The harder part is figuring out what kind of version the Braves are getting. Acuña’s .373 on-base percentage is still excellent, but the power has been inconsistent.
Outside of a blistering stretch at the end of May, when he hit five homers in four games, he hasn’t looked like the usual force. Before that run, he posted a .695 OPS in his first 42 games.
In the seven games after it, before the latest hamstring injury, he was down to a .601 OPS. Even if he’s fully healthy, there’s no guarantee the rest of his season suddenly looks like Acuña at his best.
Austin Riley is another major unknown, and this one has been hanging around for a while. His offensive drop-off has been one of the stranger storylines in the sport over the past couple of seasons.
Injuries have played a part - a broken wrist in 2024 and an abdominal issue in 2025 - but even when he’s been on the field, the production has mostly lagged. This year has been especially rough.
Riley comes out of the break with a .618 OPS, and over his last 50 games he’s hit .195 with three home runs. Dating back to July 4, 2024, his last 1,000 plate appearances have produced a .707 OPS, which sits 12 points below league average over that span.
The hope is still there that he rediscovers the 30-plus-homer bat tied to his 10-year, $212 contract extension from 2022. The evidence, though, doesn’t point to an imminent turnaround.
That leads directly to the roster question that may matter most: can the Braves really get through the second half without major additions? On the pitching side, the answer looks close to no.
They need an impact starter by the Deadline, and probably another quality arm as well. The rotation has been battered by injuries and underperformance for a second straight year.
Right now, Chris Sale sits at the top, and maybe - maybe - Reynaldo López can settle in behind him. Beyond that, confidence gets thin fast.
Martín Pérez opened well enough over the first two months, but his recent form has drifted back toward his career track, including a 7.43 ERA over his last three starts and 13 1/3 innings. Bryce Elder, who briefly looked like he might echo his 2023 All-Star season, has also hit a rough patch, posting an 8.47 ERA in his last seven starts.
Grant Holmes has been better lately, but he may fit better in the bullpen. JR Ritchie and Hurston Waldrep don’t appear ready for full-time starting jobs.
Add in the uncertainty around injured starters Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach, plus the unknown surrounding AJ Smith-Shawver when he returns, and the need becomes obvious.
The offense needs help too. Since May 11, a stretch of 54 games, Atlanta has put up a .673 OPS, which ranks 29th in baseball.
June was even worse, with an MLB-worst .599 OPS. That slump has come with Acuña out, Riley struggling, Drake Baldwin missing time with an All-Star-caliber run on the injured list and then going cold after returning, and very little from the shortstop group, especially Ha-Seong Kim.
The designated hitter spot has faded as well, and the corner outfield production has been uneven. In a perfect world, Acuña gets back to MVP level, Riley gets close to league average, and the rest of the core - Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II and Baldwin - keeps trending up.
But that’s a lot of moving parts. Atlanta needs at least one real bat before the Deadline.
If there’s been one steady thing, it’s the bullpen. The Braves’ relievers have been elite all year, finishing the first half with an MLB-best 3.06 ERA and 1.12 WHIP.
Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias have been the headliners late in games, and those three combined for a 1.43 ERA while holding opponents to a .184 average across 107 1/3 innings. The concern now is workload.
The starters haven’t been going deep, so the bullpen has carried a heavy load. Suarez has been out since late June with forearm inflammation, and Atlanta has to wonder how sharp he’ll be when he returns, and whether the rest of the group can keep this up without slipping.
Then there’s the Deadline itself, and what kind of move the Braves actually make. They have options: go big, go medium or go small.
A blockbuster is possible, especially with the financial and prospect capital to chase someone like Tarik Skubal, but that doesn’t mean it’s likely. Atlanta hasn’t really gone all-in at the Deadline in a long time; the last true world-shaking swing came in 2007, when the Braves sent several top prospects, including future All-Stars Elvis Andrus and Neftalí Feliz and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, for Mark Teixeira.
That one didn’t really pay off for Atlanta.
They could also take the 2021 route again, targeting undervalued players with upside instead of emptying the system. That approach brought in Eddie Rosario and Jorge Soler, and both ended up as NLCS and World Series MVPs.
The lesson is simple enough: there’s more than one way to do this. The Braves have the resources to make a splash, but they also have the flexibility to choose a quieter path.
Either way, the second half is going to tell the story.
In Other News...
Braves Get An Acuna Rehab Check And A Surprise Farm System Jolt
Ronald Acuna Jr. took another step in his rehab work with the FCL Braves on Monday, appearing for the second time as he continues to work back from a hamstring strain. The box score offered the kind of early-summer checkpoint Atlanta is watching closely: Acuna was in the lineup against the FCL Twins, while Ha-Seong Kim and Ray Kerr also got into the game as the organization keeps cycling big-league talent through the complex league level.
Elsewhere in the system, the Braves got an unexpected jolt from the DSL. Cesar Navarro delivered a complete-game shutout against the DSL Giants Orange, a type of performance that barely shows up in that league and has been scarce for Atlanta's affiliate in recent years. For a farm system that is usually tracked most closely for rehab updates and prospect development, it was the kind of pitching line that tends to travel quickly through the organization. [Read more 🡒]
Chris Sales All-Star Benching Says Everything About These Braves
Chris Sale made the All-Star team as one of the Braves most important arms, but he never took the mound in the game, a reminder of how carefully Atlanta is managing every meaningful start it can get from him. With the rotation battered by injuries, regression and inconsistency, the Braves are treating Sale less like an exhibition piece and more like a needed answer in a season that still has real stakes attached to every decision.
The urgency is easy to see with Atlantas NL East cushion trimmed to two games, which makes preserving Sale for the stretch run feel less like caution and more like necessity. The club has already lined him up to start its first game after the break against the Rangers, and that assignment says plenty about where the Braves believe their margin for error really is. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Are Being Tied To A Deadline Arm Fans Should Fear
The Braves are expected to shop for starting pitching ahead of the trade deadline, and one name that has surfaced is a familiar one for fans who have followed the market closely. The appeal is obvious on paper: Atlanta needs help in the rotation, and a veteran arm with a track record of success would fit the kind of midseason upgrade the club usually explores when it believes a run is there to be made.
There is plenty of reason for caution, though, because the pitcher in question has not looked like the same force he was a year ago. His strikeout rate has slipped, his fastball has lost nearly two mph, and he has had more trouble missing bats and limiting hard contact, which makes any deal feel far less straightforward than the name recognition suggests. For Atlanta, the question is whether the price in money and prospect capital would be worth the gamble, especially if the front office decides this is the kind of move it can only make under very specific conditions. [Read more 🡒]