Blessed with the best record in baseball, the 83-44 Atlanta Braves hold a 13.5-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East race and are four games better than the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Frankly, they could be even better once All-Star second baseman Ozzie Albies returns from the IL. Atlanta has reintegrated southpaw ace Max Fried into the starting rotation, but Kyle Wright is still on the mend. Maybe there is an arm Atlanta can target in free agency if Charlie Morton retires? In the meantime, have you seen how many home runs this most potent lineup has hit throughout the year?
So with with Game 2 of their road series at the San Francisco Giants coming to us live later this afternoon, are you ready for some more Braves baseball news?! I already know the answer to that.
Atlanta Braves rumors: Home run history chase update
MLB.com's Mark Bowman outlined what all is going on with the franchise that lives to dig the long ball. Through Friday night's action, five Braves hitters have connected on 25 or more big flies. Matt Olson leads baseball with 48. Austin Riley is one away from 30 with 29. Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies and Marcell Ozuna all have 28 apiece. Sean Murphy and Eddie Rosario are a good ways back at 20 apiece.
Basically, here is what is at stake... Olson is eight home runs away from tying Andruw Jones' franchise record of 51 in a season. Should Acuña, Alibies, Ozuna and Riley all get to 30 or more homers, it would set an NL record for most players with 30-plus home runs in a season at five. That would tie them with the 2019 Twins, a team Rosario was a part of, for the most 30-homer teammates on one MLB roster.
To date, only the 1998 Braves featured a team with four players who hit 30 moonshots in a season. Those players were Andres Galarraga, Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones and Javy Lopez. Should either Murphy or Rosario get above the 25-homer plateau, Atlanta would tie the 2003 Boston Red Sox and the 2019 Twins for six players on one roster with 25 or more home runs. This latter one is so unlikely.
The only people who dig the long ball more than '90s chicks these days are the 2023 Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta Braves rumors: Luis Severino a surprise free agency target?
If the Braves end up losing Charlie Morton to retirement, there may be a bargain-bin signing available for general manager Alex Anthopoulos in free agency. Chase Irle of Sports Talk ATL suggested Luis Severino of the New York Yankees. It seems like a low-risk, high-reward sort of option. At the very least, I am intrigued. Let's discuss why targeting Severino is not the craziest idea to be had in all this.
With the Braves firing on all cylinders as a roster, The Battery being a limitless cash cow and Liberty Media making Braves shares available to be bought and traded on the stock market, financial capital is not going to be an issue for this franchise going forward. However, Anthopoulos has a reputation of never overspending in MLB free agency. It is why he let Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson walk.
So when it comes to Severino, we know what he is capable of at his peak. He was a brilliant pitcher earlier in his career for the Yankees, but arm troubles and inconsistencies have made him a shell of what he once was. At the very least, Severino could be a borderline-roster candidate to help the Braves fill out their starting rotation at the start of next season. He could be a No. 4 or No. 5 starter.
Even if Severino does not succeed in Atlanta, he is not going to cost an arm and a leg in free agency.
Atlanta Braves rumors: When will Ozzie Albies return to the lineup?
With the final days of August upon us, we should anticipate Ozzie Albies returning to the starting lineup sooner rather than later. Atlanta's All-Star second baseman has been on IL since Aug. 15 with a hamstring injury. He was eligible to come off the IL on Friday in Game 1 of the Braves' road series vs. the San Francisco Giants, but all signs point towards him making his return vs. the Colorado Rockies.
The idea behind the Rockies series being so important for Albies' return is it would give him a little bit of a warm-up in the middle part of their West Coast road trip before taking on the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers in the following series. While San Francisco is a playoff-caliber team, Colorado is in the pits again, well, because they are the Rockies and that is what they do more often than not...
The great news for the Braves is there is no reason to rush Albies back into the starting lineup any sooner than they have to. If Atlanta wants to win its second World Series in three years, the Braves need a healthy Albies manning second base and hitting in the top-half of their batting order. Vaughn Grissom and Nicky Lopez can keep his seat warm, but it will be Albies' seat once he returns in a bit.
With Albies traveling with the team on the West Coast road trip, his return to the team feels imminent.
