No self-respecting Atlanta Braves fan would sit here in August and tell you that this has been a fun 2025 season. Injuries have ravaged just about every part of this roster throughout the year.
At this point, most fans have come to terms with the fact that it’s a lost season, but the good news is that there is hope on the horizon. In fact, that hope is there for the 2026 campaign, and there are a number of Braves who are already raising the level of optimism for next season.
The Braves have gotten hot all of a sudden, winning eight of their last 10 and sitting with a 10-7 record so far in the month of August.
It’s obviously going to be too little, too late as Atlanta sits 10.5 games out of a wild card spot and 16 games out of the division lead. However, it’s good to see a team that was underperforming for so long finally show signs of life.
What’s better, though, is that several of those signs of life should carry into the 2026 season for the Braves and these four outbursts, specifically, should give fans hope that the Bravos will be right back in the thick of the playoff race a year from now.
4. Drake Baldwin hasn’t slowed down
Rookie catcher Drake Baldwin has been a revelation in Atlanta this season.
His rise to prominence this season put him immediately in the NL Rookie of the Year conversation and potentially created a Braves platoon for years to come with him and Sean Murphy, using one in the DH spot and one at catcher. Whether that’s the plan beyond this season, though, Baldwin is clearly the future.
What’s even better, though, the Braves aren’t seeing Baldwin slow down, even late in his first big-league season.
For the year, Baldwin is slashing .278/.343/.458 with 13 homers and 12 doubles. Even with the dog days of summer taking their toll, he’s still been productive at the dish with a .275/.315/.412 line in August with two homers, a double and 12 RBI. He’s continuing to be a strong offensive force.
To me, this is proof of concept that the Baldwin breakout isn’t just a flash in the pan.
He’s a stalwart in this lineup for years to come and could not only be the primary catcher in the 2026 season, but perhaps gives the Braves flexibility to move Sean Murphy in order to add more talent to the roster around Baldwin, perhaps in the rotation that will still be somewhat short-handed come Opening Day next year.
3. Jurickson Profar can finally solidify left field for the Braves
It was undoubtedly a bad look to sign Jurickson Profar only for him to almost immediately be suspended for PEDs after the start of the season.
What made it particularly brutal, however, was the fact that the Braves then struggled to find any kind of reliability in left field without Profar available.
That’s certainly been a contributing factor to the way the 2025 campaign has gone, but the good news is that Profar will return for next season, and that’s looking like it could be a boom for Atlanta.
To put it simply, Profar has been dynamite in the month of August thus far. He’s posted a 1.085 OPS along with a .297 average, mashing six homer runs, two doubles and a triple in the month with 15 RBI to his credit. He’s also walked 16 times to just 12 strikeouts and has also been a plus asset defensively, including some highlight-reel catches in left field.
Whether you’re talking about Jarred Kelenic, Alex Verdugo or the number of other options the Braves have tried at left field, it’s becoming clear why Alex Anthopoulos made the investment in the veteran outfielder.
He’s heating up and the Braves are succeeding, which isn’t coincidence. Going into the 2026 season with a problem area now looking like a potential strength should pay huge dividends for this club.
2. Hurston Waldrep and Joey Wentz are now part of Atlanta’s staff
Some of the problems with the Braves rotation aren’t going away in the 2026 season.
AJ Smith-Shawver and Grant Holmes are already all but confirmed to miss part of if not the entire year, while we haven’t seen the returns of Spencer Schwellenbach or Reynaldo Lopez yet to assess the confidence level there moving forward. And though Chris Sale has been stellar, health has eluded him frequently over the past few years with his Cy Young 2024 campaign looking like the outlier.
The good news for the Braves is that reinforcements have put themselves in the forefront with Hurston Waldrep and Joey Wentz as they’ve been called up to fill in amid the litany of injuries to this pitching staff.
Waldrep, the top prospect for Atlanta, has thrown a middling year in Triple-A aside and actually all but dominated at the major-league level.
It’s a small sample size across three outings and two starts that have gone 17.2 innings, but he’s looked the part of a star, posting a 1.02 ERA with an 0.79 WHIP to his credit. Wentz has a larger body of work, but has continued to be impressive with a 2.60 ERA and 0.95 WHIP across six starts and seven appearances this year.
With the lingering rotation questions, having two young arms assert themselves in this manner should help Braves fans sleep at night. Surely, everyone would be more than fine with a rotation of Sale, Spencer Strider, Schwellenbach, Waldrep and Wentz with Lopez mixed in and potentially pushing someone like Wentz into a long relief role. In any case, the Braves have found some pitching answers they desperately needed.
1. Michael Harris II might be the hottest player in baseball
Nothing has been more optimistic for the Braves future than Michael Harris II beginning to look like the Michael Harris II we knew he always could be in the second half of the season.
Going into the All-Star break, the centerfielder was quite literally one of the worst hitters in baseball, sporting a slash line of .210/.234/.317/.551 with just six homers, 13 doubles, three triples and an appalling 77 strikeouts in 368 plate appearances.
It was nothing like the electricity that we’ve seen him provide and, in fact, he was an active detriment to the Atlanta offense. But in the 30 games since, Harris has been otherworldly good and hasn’t cooled down a bit.
In the 30 games since the break, Harris has arguably been the hottest player in the sport with a .398 average and a 1.144 OPS. He’s already surpassed his home run total in these 30 games from what he did in the first 93 outings with nine as well as adding eight doubles and three triples and going berserk with 22 RBI, half of his pre-break total of 44. It’s been unbelievable.
The defense has always been a plus asset in center field for Harris, but his emergence as not only a usable bat but an absolute spark plug for this Braves offense is huge.
There were conversations about him potentially being in consideration for drastic changes after the first half, but he’s flipped that narrative on its head. He’s not going to have a 1.144 OPS forever, but starting to positively regress to his mean gives hope for Atlanta’s offense as they trudge forward.
