Matt Olson is amid the most prolific power-hitting season in Braves franchise history. As Kelly Crull so elegantly put during Wednesday’s series finale against the Yankees, the All-Star first baseman has more home runs than the club has losses this season.
Olson’s .615 slugging percentage ranks second in all of baseball; his 107 runs batted in leads the MLB, which is 15 more than the second most.
Olson on pace to break the franchise record for most homers in a season, a record set by Andruw Jones in 2005 when he hit 51 long balls. Olson is on pace to finish just shy of 60 bombs, but the way he’s hitting, nobody should be surprised if he reaches the illustrious mark.
Matt Olson is making a lot of Braves fans, Chase included, eat their words from a year ago, when he fell short of expectations even though he mashed 34 home runs with an OPS north of .800.
What makes this all sweeter? Olson is becoming impossible to hate. He talked about his favorite home run on an episode of Pardon My Take, and it was against the Mets in the final series between the rivals in late September in which he followed Austin Riley‘s home run with one of his own off Jacob deGrom, setting the tone for the rest of the series.
The Braves lost a top-five hitter in baseball a couple of years ago when Freddie Freeman walked in free agency, and all the club did was replace him with another top-five hitter. The Braves are the best-ran organiztion in the MLB and maybe all of sports. Matt Olson’s acquisition and subsequent extension is just another example of that.
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