Pitchers and catchers have reported for the Atlanta Braves, and it’s finally time for the team and the fans to put a disappointing and injury riddled 2024 season behind them.
Sportsbooks have certainly put what happened to the Braves last season behind them because in every major sports book (Bet MGM, Draft Kings, FanDuel, ESPN Bet, Vegas Insider, etc..) the Braves have no lower than the fifth highest odds to win the World Series this year, and in some of those sportsbooks they have the second highest odds to win it all only behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Earlier today our very own Braves insider and reporter Grant McAuley joined The Morning Shift and explained why he thinks the Braves are still one of the best teams in baseball when healthy.
“Well if you get them healthy I feel like this is still one of the best teams in the National League, and that was the thing that we had to talk about non stop last year was could that happen, would that happen, when will that happen, and could this team ever really get rolling, and despite all the things they went through they still won 89 games and found their way into the postseason…” McAuley said
Grant continued by saying “We came into North Port and Cool Today Park and we’re hearing about World Series or bust aspirations and that simply did not happen for the Braves last year it did go bust, but this is a new year, this is still a very talented team and I think they’re excited to have this new opportunity to get a fresh start in a lot of different ways.”
Despite losing some key contributors they’ve had over the past few years like Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Travis d’Arnaud, A.J. Minter, and Tyler Matzek. The Braves still have the reigning NL Cy Young award winner coming back to their rotation in Chris Sale, along with Spencer Strider who should be back in the rotation fairly early into the season coming off of internal-brace surgery to repair a damaged UCL, and also two guys in Reynaldo López and Spencer Schwellenbach who were pleasant surprises in their own ways last season.
The Braves will also get back their superstar in Ronald Acuña Jr. at some point during the season after he tore his ACL last season, and add him into their already dangerous lineup. Atlanta also added a nice bat in free agency when they signed Jurickson Profar to a three-year $42 million-dollar deal.
Just like with any team, staying healthy will be the biggest hurdle for the Braves this season, but once they get Strider and Acuña Jr. back, and if Atlanta can stay healthy beyond that point the Braves will be more than ready to prove that they are still World Series contenders.
