What’s the Atlanta Braves’ biggest flaw?

While both Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider have returned over the past week, the NL East may have already slipped away. A scorching 9-1 stretch has the Phillies 9.5 games ahead of the Braves, and with two more head-to-head matchups in Philadelphia this week, that gap could widen even further. The Braves dropped the first game of the series at Citizens Bank Park, and they’re running out of time — and excuses.

Consistency has been impossible to come by from the Braves dating back to around this time last season. This has been a .500 baseball club for a calendar year, and it’s about time we start treating them like one. When one facet of the club steps up, another one falters. But which part of the team is really the greatest cause for concern moving forward?

The simplest way to describe the Braves struggles this season is they are an absolutely brutal baseball team situationally. The bullpen is a horrendous mess, and that’s no fault of Brian Snitker’s. He doesn’t have the horses, a problem that lies squarely at the feet of Alex Anthopoulos, who watched two of his best relievers walk out the door from a year ago and did absolutely nothing to replace them. The group has accrued -0.2 fWAR through the season’s first 53 games — good for 26th in the league.

That said, there’s still a path to improvement in the bullpen. If Raisel Iglesias can rediscover his form and the Braves make a move or two — maybe bringing up Craig Kimbrel or adding a veteran at the deadline — the group could stabilize. That alone won’t tank a season.

The real problem, the one that’s been brewing since June of last year, is the offense.

This was once the most feared lineup in baseball — a literal juggernaut. The 2023 Braves made history by slugging over .500 as a team and tying the all-time single-season home run record (307). Three players hit 40+ bombs. Seven hit at least 20. Ten reached double digits. Matt Olson shattered the franchise HR record.

It was a season that was always going to be nearly impossible to replicate, but for the first 50 games of 2024, it seemed like the Braves were well on their way to being among the best offenses in baseball yet again. Then, the injury to Ronald Acuña Jr. happened. From that point on, Atlanta was a bottom ten offense in the league, carried solely by the best pitching staff they’ve had since the days Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, and John Smoltz were busy taking turns winning the NL Cy Young award.

A lot of the Braves struggles were just glossed over due to injuries. Acuña was one of what felt like a dozen guys that missed significant time a year ago, and when he returned, most just expected a switch to flip for the entire team. The sample size to this point is minuscule — just four games — but the Braves have scored three runs or fewer in three of those games, going 1-3 despite Acuña hitting .313 with two homers and a 1.139 OPS.

Following last night’s shutout loss, the Braves now rank 21st in the league in runs scored, a position nobody could have even fathomed a couple of years ago, and a large part of their issues stems from their inability to hit in high leverage situations. Atlanta ranks 23rd in runs scored with RISP, a number that even feels generous for those that have sat around and watched all 53 games in their entirety. Absolutely anytime this team needs a big hit in a close game, they haven’t been able to come through, and it doesn’t seem to matter who is at the plate in the situation.

This is a problem that has now gone on for too long to ignore. Since Acuña went down last year, the Braves are just three games over .500. The offense has been lifeless for 12 months. Austin Riley and Matt Olson have been nowhere near consistent enough. Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II appear to be regressing. And the bottom of the order, featuring guys like Eli White and Nick Allen, isn’t scaring anyone.

Acuña is going to help the Braves win games. He’s that kind of player, and so far, he looks much closer to his 2023 MVP form than the 2022 post-injury version. But the elephant in the room isn’t Acuña — it’s the cast around him. And it’s fair to start asking the hard question: Is this lineup still good enough to contend for a World Series?