ESPN names the biggest success and failure for the Braves

Only nine games remain before the baseball gods finally give Braves Country some mercy.

It’s been a nightmare in Atlanta since Opening Day, beginning with a seven-game losing streak that served as a foreshadowing of what was to come. Underperformances put the Braves behind the eight-ball, and injuries struck them lifeless. The moments to cheer in the middle were often fleeting, but if there were any encouraging signs for the future, the emergence of Hurston Waldrep is a pretty good place to start.

“Successes have been few and far between for the Braves, but Waldrep’s trajectory seems to be one of them,” Bradford Doolittle writes for ESPN. “The sample remains small, but Waldrep went 4-0 with a 1.33 ERA over his first seven starts in 2025 before being roughed up by Houston. He looks like a keeper, if the Braves can keep him healthy.”

Outside of that one start against the Astros, Waldrep allowed three runs or less in all eight of his starts, and allowed one run or less in six of them. He looks to be the Braves next impact homegrown arm, and what makes his emergence so encouraging is it really came out of nowhere.

A few months ago, it was fair to wonder if Waldrep would ever find success at the major-league level. He was getting hit all over the yard in AAA Gwinnett, struggling to miss bats and find the strike zone. But some mid-season adjustments seem to have changed the trajectory of his entire career. With so many concerns regarding the Braves starting pitching, Waldrep’s emergence has to be near the top of the list of positive storylines going into the offseason.

As far as the biggest disappointment, It’s difficult to name just one.

“The Braves are on pace to miss their forecast by 24 games, a plummet so severe that it’s hard to blame it on any one thing,” Doolittle continues. “Injuries have played a part, but other teams are headed to the postseason with plenty of those — the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Brewers among those with worse health metrics than the Braves. The collapse on the pitching side has been more acute than on offense, but no one is without culpability. Perhaps worst of all, the Braves have baseball’s second-worst organizational record. Things haven’t been any better in the minors.”

Injuries have no place in the conversation when talking about the Braves biggest disappointment of the season. There were plenty of them and many were untimely, but this club was struggling long before players started dropping like flies.

The Braves were a poorly constructed ball club. Alex Anthopoulos’ refusal to participate in free agency left Brian Snitker with a paper thin roster across the board, while some of the “team friendly” contract extensions he handed out so early began to sour. Injuries are nothing more than an excuse for why the Braves failed this year, and if Anthopoulos utilizes that cop-out again this offseason, they’ll find themselves in this exact same position in 2026.