Matt Olson has not only had the hottest bat for the Atlanta Braves during Spring Training this year, but Olson has been the hottest hitter in all of baseball during Grapefruit league play. The Braves first baseman is batting .441 this Spring with a league leading seven home runs. Olson has gone 15-34 at the plate during Grapefruit League play this year, including going 1-2 yesterday with a 2-run homer and a walk during the Braves’ game with the Mets yesterday afternoon.
If you think about it, Olson’s hot start shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone because he started hot last year as well, and was almost automatic at the plate at the beginning of last season. However, once opposing teams started putting the shift on Olson the lefty became a victim to it. However, now the shift is no more, and with Olson white hot right now, will he be able to stay hot for longer because teams can’t put the shift on him anymore?
Matt Olson was shifted on last year in 81% of all his plate appearances last season, and now that number is dropping to zero combined with the fact that he is almost impossible to get out right now, could Matt Olson be an NL MVP Dark Horse this season? Earlier today Beau Morgan, Mike Johnson, and Tiffany Blackmon gave their takes on The Morning Shift.
Now, it goes without saying that Matt Olson, shift or no shift, won’t stay this hot forever. However, even when he does cool off those potential singles last year that were hit right into the shift will be base hits this year, and those base hits will keep his batting average up, his rhythm up, and also his confidence up. Matt knowing in the back of his mind that there’s no shift this year has and will continue to keep his confidence up all season long as well.
Mike Johnson wants people to pump the brakes though saying “Dark Horse is the perfect word.” Mike also says “I don’t know that he’s ever going to be in that conversation.”
Mike finishes his thought by talking about why Ronald Acuña Jr. is going to have a better shot at MVP than Matt Olson saying “Acuña is going to be much closer to the .300 mark, Acuña is going to have a lot of the same power that you feel like Matt Olson is going to have, and going into this season with all the rule changes Acuña is probably going to be looking at thirty, forty, forty plus stolen bases, so Matt Olson yes I think he’s going to have incredible power numbers, I think when you look at his slugging percentage and who’s he kind of playing around in that lineup, gonna be a lot of good things, I don’t know that I’m close enough to say in the MVP conversation. Yes dark horse, dark horse is a good word, but I'm not ready to throw him in there just yet.”
Beau disagrees because of the fact mentioned earlier that Matt had so many hits taken away from him last year due to the shift, and now with there being no shift his on base percentage and his batting average will both be up. Beau says “Absolutely Matt Olson should be considered an MVP candidate.”
Beau continues by saying “He might get RBI opportunities and chances with a healthy Ozzie [Albies], a healthy Acuña to go up there in that third spot, and really hit with guys on base. I think Matt Olson should be higher than what you say Vegas maybe has him right now.”
Tiffany agrees that without the shift that Matt Olson could have a big year, but believes it’s too early to put him in that MVP conversation saying “I don’t like to get ahead of myself, give me a couple of games, give me like a month or two in, and then we can start having that conversation.”
Beau circles back and makes another good point saying “Last year it was all about show me why Freddie Freeman is not here and I should be happy that you're here and that’s all passed now.” Beau goes on to say that he believes Braves fans now embracing Matt Olson fully this season will be a “sigh of relief” to Matt, and there is probably a lot of truth to that.
Nobody is telling you to put everything you own on Matt Olson winning the NL MVP this year, but between being white hot right now, not having to deal with the shift, and probably feeling a lot less pressure to perform this season, don’t be surprised if he’s in the conversation when September rolls around.