How untradeable is the contract of Austin Riley?

The Braves need to make some significant improvements to the roster if they want to get back to competing for championships come October. However, the biggest obstacle they have to overcome is of their own doing.

Alex Anthopoulos was one of the first general managers who really pushed the envelope when it came to handing extensions to the Braves’ young talent. He wanted to get the guys he believed in locked in early, which would make those deals look very team-friendly down the road if the player continued to ascend.

The risk in doing that with essentially the entire roster is that it doesn’t leave you a lot of room to maneuver if some of these young players start to regress. That’s what the Braves are finding out the hard way right now. Nearly the entire lineup signed long-term deals: the ones who are performing, Anthopoulos would never trade, while the ones he might like to move aren’t going to garner much interest from the rest of the league.

The primary example of the latter is Austin Riley, who signed a 10-year, $212 million contract — the largest in franchise history — and has regressed in every season since, culminating in a 2026 campaign that saw him hit .219 with an 80 OPS+ (20% below league average). He struck out more than 200 times while hitting fewer than 20 home runs — just the third player in MLB history to do so.

That performance, along with the six years and $132 million remaining on his contract, landed Riley at #4 on Bleacher Report writer Joel Reuter’s list of the top 10 most untradeable contracts in the sport.

Remaining Salary: 6 years, $132 million

The story of Austin Riley’s career so far can be told in three chapters.

The first is his rapid rise to stardom, culminating in three straight top 10 finishes in NL MVP voting from 2021-23 when he posted a 135 OPS+ while averaging 36 home runs, 99 RBI and 6.3 WAR.

The second is a pair of injury-plagued seasons in 2024 and 2025. During that stretch, he posted a 110 OPS+ and averaged 18 home runs, 55 RBI and 2.1 WAR while playing 110 and 102 games.

The third is what lands him on this list. He stayed healthy enough to play 159 games this past season, but hit .219/.290/.364 for an 80 OPS+ and 1.1 WAR, potentially showing some lingering effects of the core surgery that ended his 2025 season.

At 29 years old, can he return to elite-level production, or will he make a case for the No. 1 spot on this list in the not-too-distant future?

Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of Riley’s performance, and what makes this contract nearly impossible to move, is the steady decline. He was decent in 2024, recording a .783 OPS, but that number dropped to .737 in 2025 and all the way down to .654 this year. That’s a trend that will be hard for anybody to overlook in this sport.

That’s not to say all hope is lost for Riley. He’s still just 30 years old, and it’s not as if there has ever been any question about his work ethic. The Braves believe he’s more than capable of righting the ship and being an impact player for years to come.

But as far as the rest of the league? They’ll probably have to see him prove it before anybody’s seriously interested in taking on the remainder of that contract.