The Atlanta Braves are still three games below .500 at 15-18 this season, but the recent trends are positive.

The offense is beginning to perk up and the pitching staff, while far from elite, is settling into a run of passibility.

At the end of the day, there are still precious few teams with a talent advantage when the Braves walk into town.

This offseason was defined by the departures of Max Fried and Charlie Morton — as well as the loudly broadcast recoveries of Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr., which the Braves deployed as an excuse not to operate aggressively in free agency.

Unfortunately, Strider got hurt (again) and Acuña Jr.’s still not back yet. The Braves are also dealing with an injury to Reynaldo López and an early-season slump from Chris Sale.

Getting out from under Morton appears to have been a shrewd move, but Alex Anthopoulos’ inability to replace his outgoing aces will go down as one of the most damning missteps of his highly acclaimed career.

As a result, the Braves’ rotation is in disarray, dependent on young and unproven arms that the fan base is largely unwilling to embrace.

We’ve seen a few too many walks from A.J. Smith-Shawver over the years; Grant Holmes is not quite the shutout B-side the Braves need him to be right now. As for Bryce Elder, well, that disappointment is well documented.

And yet, it’s Elder who is currently helping to turn things around for Atlanta – and it’s time for fans to take notice.

Bryce Elder will have Braves fans issuing apologies after authoring four straight wins

It’s only his fourth MLB season, but Bryce Elder has lived a full baseball life.

He has been through all the trials and tribulations with Atlanta, from postseason contention to Triple-A demotions and everything in between.

He made the All-Star Game as a rookie in 2023, only to struggle immensely over the second half of that season and collapse spectacularly in the playoffs.

Then, he barely cracked 10 starts in 2024 as the Braves looked for steadier hands. His finished his sophomore campaign with a 6.52 ERA across 49.2 innings at the big-league level. Folks were ready to banish him to baseball purgatory.

Out of necessity, Elder has once again emerged in a key role for the Braves this season.

It has not been perfect — a 5.06 ERA and 1.38 WHIP across six starts does not qualify as a groundbreaking achievement — but Elder is beginning to round into form. After a couple rocky efforts out of the gate, Elder’s last four starts consist of a 4.09 ERA, allowing 20 hits, 10 walks and 10 earned runs in 22 innings.

More importantly, the Braves are 4-0 in those games.

At the end of the day, baseball rewards nothing more than winning. Elder continues to work through issues with command, but he is doing enough to put the Braves in a position to win games each and every week. For a team suffering in the win-loss column, that is one heck of a virtue.

If Elder is even a passable fourth or fifth starter when the Braves are fully healthy, that is a game-changer. He looks the part right now.

With max velocity in the upper-90s and a groundball rate in MLB’s 83rd percentile, Elder continues to boast an intriguing blend of power and finesse. At just 25 years old, it’s important to remember that he’s still settling in at the professional level.

Braves fans ought to be pleased, even excited, about Elder’s progress, which means it’s time to queue up those apology letters.