After disappointing postseason, will Braves make big changes?

From the moment the season opened, one question hung over the Braves above all others: would they have enough pitching to be legitimate championship contenders?

It got ugly fast. Atlanta lost Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep essentially for the year during Spring Training. Spencer Strider got hurt around the same time, joined the club late, never looked like himself, and was eventually shut down too. Three-fifths of what the Braves penciled in as their rotation made about 10 starts combined, and Reynaldo Lopez never made much of an impact before ineffectiveness and injury caught up to him.

On paper, it was Chris Sale and a prayer. And yet, through it all, the pitching staff never flinched — not even in October. Atlanta held the Phillies to just 10 runs over three games and limited the Dodgers’ All-Star lineup to 13 over four. Normally, that’s more than enough. Instead, it was the offense that sent the Braves home, no-showing in the postseason once again.

The story of this NLDS was Atlanta’s maddening inability to deliver the big hit — and it started at the top. Ronald Acuña Jr. managed just three hits the entire postseason, none for extra bases, with zero RBIs. And somehow the numbers undersell how lost he looked. He barely hit a ball hard over six games, and with runners in scoring position, opposing pitchers were practically begging him to step into the box.

Nothing captured it better than Game 2, when the Dodgers intentionally walked Drake Baldwin to load the bases with one out just to get to Acuña — who promptly grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Braves fans hoped the tide would turn once the series shifted back to Truist Park. It only got worse. Acuña didn’t record a hit over the final two games and came up empty with runners in scoring position three separate times. The last came in his final at-bat of the season — a weak first-pitch grounder to shortstop that drew a chorus of boos from his own home crowd.

But this was never just an Acuña problem. Matt Olson and Drake Baldwin were every bit as invisible. Olson had four hits all postseason, a .148 average and a .459 OPS, and Baldwin was somehow worse, hitting .111 with a .348 OPS.

As a team, the Braves went 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position in the NLDS — the second-worst mark in MLB history.

That’s what makes this one sting. If the star-studded Dodgers had simply swept Atlanta off the floor, you could live with it. But this series was right there. The bullpen was mostly outstanding, and Tyler Mahle tossed an absolute gem in Game 4. A couple of timely swings — just a couple — and we’re talking about the Braves advancing to the NLCS right now. That’s how thin the margin was.

Instead, we’re left asking the same questions we’ve asked after every October exit with this group. The pitching keeps showing up. The bats keep disappearing.

Since the 2021 World Series, the Braves have won exactly one playoff series — a three-game set against the Phillies, all of it at home. Over that stretch, they’ve played 17 postseason games and scored 40 total runs. That’s 2.3 per game. You don’t win much scoring like that, and the sample with this specific core is no longer small enough to wave off.

So the Braves clearly need to change something. What they can actually do is far murkier. Much of the roster is locked into long-term deals, and the players they might entertain moving — Austin Riley, Spencer Strider, Sean Murphy — wouldn’t generate much of a market, if any.

They’d never trade Michael Harris II, who’s on one of the most team-friendly contracts in the league and happens to be one of the few Braves who consistently shows up in October. They could dangle Ozzie Albies, but good luck upgrading on a middle infielder set to make just $7 million.

Which leaves one uncomfortable option: seriously gauging Ronald Acuña Jr.‘s value around the league. Some fans would welcome Alex Anthopoulos picking up the phone. Others can’t stomach the thought of the 2023 NL MVP in anything but a Braves uniform.

The day after a season dies, it’s easy to want to sell every share of Acuña stock. He was horrendous this postseason — and, frankly, has been a poor October performer for a while now. Add in the injury history, and if an extension isn’t on the table, watching him walk for nothing in two years would be a gut-punch.

But the other side of the ledger is just as real: the Braves have consistently won 95-100 games with Acuña on the field, and look fairly ordinary without him. What he brings over 162 games — the production, the energy that electrifies the clubhouse — is undeniable. Atlanta isn’t giving that up unless someone blows them away.

Maybe someone does. But the way this roster is built, the Braves are stuck in no man’s land when it comes to finding real upgrades — which is exactly why, once again, major changes this offseason feel unlikely.