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What has gone wrong with Braves’ Matt Olson after home run leading season?

Originally posted on ClutchPoints | By Shane Shoemaker | Last updated 5/12/24

At this time last year, the Atlanta Braves were just starting their historic season. They were racking up runs and homers, putting up staggering offensive numbers that would end up being team highs. One player who had a lot to do with that was first baseman Matt Olson, who led the league in home runs in 2023. This season, not only has Olson not found his power swing, but he hasn’t found much of a swing at all.

In the first 36 games last year, Olson had already launched 11 home runs to go along with 34 hits in 165 plate appearances. In the first 36 games of this season, Olson has just four home runs and 26 hits in 155 plate appearances. Olson also has just four multi-hit games this season compared to last year’s seven.

Every team has guys go through slumping periods. That’s just the nature of the game. Last year, it was Marcell Ozuna who struggled mightily at the beginning of the season but then all of a sudden came alive. He was 5-for-59 with a .085 batting average but then turned it on in May to basically save his job. Ironically, it’s now Ozuna who is having to pick up Olson’s slack.

“It’s part of what we sign up for,” Olson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of his recent slump. “You gotta do what you can to get back on the right path, however long it might be, and continue to build it up the right way.”

Olson ended the month of April hitting below the Mendoza line with a .189 batting average. Eleven days and eight games into May, it’s even worse, hitting .172 with an overall average of .195. The Braves’ first baseman has five hits, no extra-base hits, scored two runs, and knocked in three.

What is interesting about Olson is that he has cut down his strikeouts this season compared to last year at this time. Last year, he had 55 strikeouts, this year he has 41. So what’s wrong with the Braves slugger?

What has happened to Matt Olson this season?

Apr 26, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson (28) hits a RBI single against the Cleveland Guardians in the fifth inning at Truist Park. Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Braves fans likely got used to seeing their new first baseman hitting the long ball last season. After having to adjust a little bit, replacing a legend like Freddie Freeman at the same position in 2022, Matt Olson had an MVP-like season in his second year in Atlanta. Hitting 54 home runs while slashing .283/.389/.604 will do that, and if not for his teammate Ronald Acuna Jr. taking the National League’s MVP award, it may have been Olson’s to lose.

But Olson now has to make up for a lot of ground this season as he’s not even hitting .200 currently. Granted, it’s still a long season ahead, but Olson looks to be a far cry from how he was producing last season, helping the Braves offense put up monster numbers.

Doing a deep dive through FanGraphs data into Olson this season, there are some glaring issues with his offense. Firstly, his isolated power has taken a massive plummet, finishing with .321 last year to just .165 currently. Last year, 40.7 percent of the time Olson was hitting the ball hard, whereas this season, that’s dropped to 34.4 percent. That certainly would explain his lack of power that’s kept the ball inside the park. But what’s interesting is that his contact percentage on pitches inside the zone, along with his overall contact percentage, has jumped up around seven percent from last season.

Another thing that did come off as notable was how much Olson was spreading the ball around last season, which likely led to his career-best 172 hits. He finished last season pulling the ball just 38.2 percent of the time, the lowest of his entire career, hitting it in center 26.9 percent and opposite field 24.7 percent. That’s looking vastly different this season so far, where he’s above his career average pulling the ball, up to 48.4 percent of the time and off by last year’s hit total by eight. Once we see Olson start to spread the ball around more might be when we know he’s coming out of his slump.

Luckily for the Braves, they have a lineup that can usually pick up the slack when someone is in a major slump. But this funk that Olson is in, although still relatively early, is starting to become a bit concerning.

This article first appeared on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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