Water has found its level next to the Chattahoochee.

The Atlanta Braves have been playing far better baseball in recent weeks after their utterly atrocious 0-7 start to the season.

They have clawed their way back to .500 twice now. It may be due to them taking advantage of a soft spot in their schedule. Then again, this team always had it in it to live up to lofty expectations. What has worked for them?

Well, for starters, the starting rotation has begun to live up to the hype it carried into the season.

This includes a rotation that has gotten virtually nothing from Reynaldo Lopez or Spencer Strider up to this point. Spencer Schwellenbach has pitched well throughout, while Chris Sale, AJ Smith-Shawver and even Bryce Elder have come along of late. It is not just the pitching that is helping this team do it.

While I harpooned general manager Alex Anthopoulos for a series of offseason blunders he made on the behalf of the Braves, I would be lying to you if he did not make a slew of good decisions as well. The bad may outweigh the good, but there are certainly positive signs to be had with this team as the Braves finally make the turn. What are the best moves Atlanta made this offseason? Let’s find out!

Some are more obvious than others, but all three I will touch on have certainly been quite impactful.

3. Trading for Nick Allen to remove Orlando Arcia from the equation at SS

One of the biggest issues that has plagued the Braves for years has been getting quality play out of shortstop.

Choosing to let Dansby Swanson walk briefly worked out with Orlando Arcia in 2023, but last season was a disaster for him, and he was even worse when he was playing this season. It is why Anthopoulos trading for Nick Allen formerly of the then-Oakland Athletics was a huge get for Atlanta.

All it took was a relief pitcher in Jared Johnson to bring Allen to the Braves. While his bat has been serviceable, it has been his glove that has done the talking. Arcia had become a liability at the plate and increasingly unreliable in the field.

Allen has effectively raised the floor at the Braves’ biggest weakness across the diamond. This is how you raise an entire system by eliminating a bottleneck.

Allen’s role with the Braves has been and will continue to be overlooked, but he has been a positive.

2. Letting a far beyond expired Charlie Morton walk in his free agency

Anthopoulos often makes it a point to let former Braves players walk in free agency.

Oftentimes, it is well before a guy has reached his expiration date. Charlie Morton was rancid milk curdling in the fridge when the Braves let him walk after last season. He has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster since going to the Baltimore Orioles. All he has done is not win a single game for the team.

Morton will always have a special place in the heart of Braves Country. This is the team who drafted him, as well as the one who saw something in him when the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays did not. Morton literally broke his leg for this team in beating his former club in Houston Astros in the 2021 Fall Classic. He has had an excellent career, but he should have hung up the spikes after last season.

Morton thought he could approach 150 career wins this year, but instead may drop back to .500…

1. Believing in Drake Baldwin enough to let Travis d’Arnaud walk away

Without question, the best decision the Braves made this past offseason was getting Drake Baldwin ready for the show.

Atlanta’s former top prospect has hit the ground running with the big-league club. The first week of the season may have been slow for him, and everyone else on the team, but he has been on fire at the plate every since Atlanta won its first game. He just needs some more playing time.

Baldwin has forced Sean Murphy to play better behind the plate, making Braves Country forget all about what Travis d’Arnaud had done for the team for years. His bat is what has us talking, coming through in every clutch situation. He seems to handle most of the guys throwing to him as well. With his sweet left-handed swing and all-around great game, is Baldwin the second coming of Yogi Berra?

He may come crashing back to earth at some point, but Baldwin is an every day big-leaguer now.