Fantasy Baseball Year in Review – Atlanta Braves

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  • By Nathan Baker

    Last Updated on October 20, 2025 5:41 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: October 20, 2025

    The 2025 Atlanta Braves entered the season with enormous expectations, generally regarded as the favorite in a hyper competitive National League East, carrying a bundle of excitement surrounding the much anticipated returns of Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. Instead, the hope of a fully healthy offensive juggernaut combined with an elite starting pitching staff evaporated through a combination of underperformance and injury, yielding Atlanta‘s first season without playoff baseball since 2017.

    Going forward, the team faces questions over the decline of some of their controllable stars and the lack of organizational depth that plagued the team in 2025. Many of Atlanta’s high tier fantasy assets suffered serious injuries, which shouldn’t necessarily torpedo their 2026 fantasy value, but the Braves carry a roster of uncertainty into a crucial season for this core.

    Catcher

    We’ll start with the brightest spot for Braves fans in 2025, enjoying the breakout of rookie catcher Drake Baldwin as a middle of the order bat, and a chance to bring home the National League Rookie of the Year award. Baldwin hit 19 home runs in 446 plate appearances with an .810 OPS, and this was after enduring a horribly unlucky start to the season.

    As reflected in his outstanding peripherals, Baldwin hits the ball very hard and limits swing and miss, offering a really encouraging offensive profile going forward. If the Braves take Baldwin and Sean Murphy into next season, Baldwin should play every day against right handed pitchers, and even some lefties, as he proved to be just as effective against southpaws in his rookie season. There is definite top five catcher upside here, but the floor is not as high as other top options with the competition for playing time and his lack of track record, but the talent is for real; he will be a very good player for a long time.

    First Base

    Matt Olson continues to play every day at first base, enjoying somewhat of a bounce back season off of a disappointing 2024, largely thanks to a monster month of September. The home runs were down until he hit eight in the last month of the season, equaling his total of 29 from last year, still a long way off of his career high 54 in 2023. An .850 OPS is indicative of the type of player Olson was, as a solid but not spectacular first baseman, but his streaky power can be leveraged into a premium fantasy asset if you have alternatives to get through his slumps.

    His ability to play literally every game is very convenient though, and while he doesn’t belong at the top of the first base hierarchy, he is still a great option in that next tier down, and his improvements in chase rate and exit velocity should quell any concerns of age related decline at age 32.

    Second Base

    The Braves will have a tough decision to make at second base going into 2026, enduring a second consecutive disappointing season from Ozzie Albies, but on this occasion, his struggles occurred over a full season of playing time. His chase rate has always been bad, but he’s never impacted the baseball less, with all of his power related peripherals ranking in the 20th percentile or worse. His .240 batting average didn’t provide any value, and 14 steals with 16 home runs isn’t much of a power/speed combination anymore. His defense has heavily declined, with his only consistently present skill being his high contact rate. A strong September may offer some hope for the future, and his $7 million club option is cheap enough that the Braves are still likely to pick it up with the lack of position player prospects and organizational depth, but Albies shouldn’t be considered a starting fantasy second baseman in 2026, a far cry from his #4 positional rank going into the season.

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    October 20, 2025, 2:34 pm