The Atlanta Braves’ lineup this season is a shadow of their former selves. Yes, Ronald Acuña Jr.’s return has woken at least parts of the top of the lineup up, but between Ozzie Albies popping everything up and the bottom of the lineup being a wasteland, it has been extremely difficult to sustain offense this season.
However, the Braves just made a roster move that could help with that.
Atlanta’s infield has been particularly anemic this season.
As much as Albies has done for the Braves over the years, he hasn’t been anywhere close to what he once was.
Nick Allen is a strong defender at shortstop, but a 64 wRC+ hitting directly ahead of Ronald Acuña Jr. is pretty problematic.
While nothing is certain, Atlanta could be pondering a move to help with that very problem as top infield prospect Nacho Alvarez Jr. was just pulled from a Triple-A game where he was raking.
Braves fans thought that Nacho Alvarez was getting called up. Instead he is hurt again
Alvarez has been one of the Braves’ better hitting prospects for a while now thanks to his innate bat-to-ball skills.
However, his MLB debut in 2024 went very poorly and injuries held him back last year as well as to start the 2025 season as well.
After coming back from a lengthy downtime thanks to a wrist injury, Alvarez has been on fire down in the minors. In nine games for Triple-A Gwinnett, Nacho has posted a .379/.561/.552 line.
While that obviously isn’t sustainable, it does speak to his ability to put the ball in play and work the opposite field.
When compared to what the Braves have been dealing with in their lineup, why not give him a shot and see if he can help the Braves out?
The question now is if Alvarez can move past his tough big league debut and actually produce. If he can, this Braves lineup just got deeper and the odds that Atlanta can make a run go up quite a bit. It is also just possible that the Braves are managing his playing time coming off an injury or he hurt himself again. Time will tell as to how this will go.
**UPDATE: 3:44 PM EST**
Unfortunately, Alvarez being pulled from Gwinnett’s game was actually an injury as he hurt his oblique.
Nacho Alvarez exited today’s game with Gwinnett with a strained oblique
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 26, 2025