Braves stars own 5 of MLB's 7 worst postseason OPS marks

The Dodgers sent Atlanta home in 4 games in the NLDS. The numbers from those games are worse than the result.

Mark Bowman

@mlbbowman

Twenty-three different MLB players have logged at least 20 plate appearances this postseason. Five of the seven lowest OPS marks have been produced by Braves: Austin Riley (.513), Mauricio Dubón (.507), Matt Olson (.459), Ronald Acuña Jr. (.425) and Drake Baldwin (.348).

Those aren't fringe guys hitting at the bottom of the order. That's the core of the lineup. Per MLB.com, Riley's.513 was the best of the 5, and after his Wild Card homer he went 1-for-19 with 7 strikeouts. The AJC had Riley 0-for-13 in the Dodgers series alone, while Olson went 2-for-16 and Acuña went 2-for-15. As a team, Atlanta hit.145 with a.501 OPS and scored 8 runs in 4 games against LA.

It ended at Truist Park on October 7 with a 4-1 loss in Game 4, which was a rough finish for a club that won 94 games and its first NL East title in 3 years. Acuña got booed during the series, and afterward he didn't dodge it: "I feel like I did nothing to help the team this series," he said, fighting back tears.

The scary part is that October only made an existing problem louder. Through May 31, Atlanta ranked 2nd in MLB in runs with a 109 wRC+. From June 1 through September 27, it ranked 28th of 30 teams with a 90 wRC+. For 4 months the lineup had been below league average, and the playoffs didn't change that.

Mark Bowman

@mlbbowman

One more look at how the Braves offense faded after May and then extended its October woes, which stretch back to 2022. These numbers are ugly regardless of whether you look only at this year or over the team’s past four trips to the postseason t.co/O78xJDnwoZ

Look past this year and it gets uglier. Across the Braves' last 4 postseason trips, going back to 2022, they're 5-12. Over that span Olson has a.641 OPS, Riley.596 and Acuña.555, with Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II the only regulars who've really shown up. Harris put up a 1.115 OPS this October, so at least 1 guy hit.

So the clock is on the front office. They can't release the core, and they shouldn't want to: Riley, Olson and Acuña are the reasons this team wins 90-plus games every year. But 1 bad October is a slump. Four in a row is a pattern, and running back the same lineup and hoping is how you end up writing this exact blog again next fall.