How the Braves went from World Series favorites to a total meltdown

At several points, we’ve wondered if the Atlanta Braves had finally hit rock bottom.

With Grant Holmes joining the 60-day IL, every starter from Atlanta’s Opening Day rotation is now on the 60-day injured list. That leaves Spencer Strider as the last man standing, joined by four names most diehard baseball fans wouldn’t recognize in a lineup. The Braves are 16 games under .500 and trail the division-leading Mets by a whopping 17 games.

At this point, the only potential silver lining is that the Braves could be in play for the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft. However, that’s a depressing conversation to have for a team that entered the season with World Series aspirations.

The Braves had the second-best odds of any club to raise the Commissioner’s Trophy. They were heavy favorites to win the division and an even bigger favorite to make the postseason after seven straight appearances. Instead, they’ve completely unraveled — not over the course of a decade, but in just a couple of seasons.

This was years in the making, and anybody blaming payroll or injuries has completely lost the plot. The Braves have four times the payroll of the Miami Marlins, yet are six games back of them in the standings with a couple of months still to play. There’s no excuse for them to be this piss-poor.

No facet of Atlanta’s roster is playoff caliber, let alone World Series caliber. The Braves bullpen was completely overlooked during the offseason, and it’s plagued the club since the opening series. The lineup has been a bottom ten unit from the jump. The rotation had promise, but lacked the depth to survive even one major injury, and they’ve now lost five starters.

Every single Braves starter came into the season with concerns, whether they be performance based or injury related.

• Chris Sale hadn’t pitched a full healthy season in nearly a decade.

• Spencer Strider was coming off InternalBrace surgery.

• Reynaldo López suffered fatigue issues in 2024.

• AJ Smith-Shawver had yet to prove he belonged in the big leagues.

• Spencer Schwellenbach was set to log the highest innings total of his career.

• Grant Holmes had seven career major-league starts.

Despite that, the Braves didn’t bring in a single arm during the offseason.

Over the years, Alex Anthopoulos’ unwillingness to pay proven commodities their worth has finally come back to bite him. He’s let star players walk out the door and refused to participate in free agency. Instead, signing lesser proven guys to cheaper long-term contracts and attempting to fit square pegs into round holes with his offseason acquisitions.

At first, it looked genius. Now, it looks as if he’s completely ruined a franchise that was at the top of the sport just a couple of seasons ago.