NL East: Thoughts on the Braves, Mets, Phillies, and more

As the calendar flips to May, the NL East lines up kind of how we all thought it might. The Atlanta Braves are on the top, the Washington Nationals are on the bottom, and the Mets and Phillies are still in play. The biggest surprises for me in this division are that the Marlins and Nationals are better than I thought they were a month ago, and while Washington still might a year or two away from making some big noise, Miami is currently on pace for 86 wins or so. The Phillies snuck into that last Wild Card spot with 87 wins last summer, so I think any of those top four teams could be playing games in late September this year.

At 20-10, the Atlanta Braves can really only stand in their own way. They’ve shown to be a very talented team built on the back of some elite pitching. Max Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton, Bryce Elder, and Kyle Wright have combined for the best staff ERA in baseball. Fried has returned from an Opening Day hamstring injury to throw 16.2 scoreless frames across his last three starts, Strider is posting a league best 14.7 Ks per 9, and Elder has started six games, won three of them, and is pitching to a 1.75 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. The only real issue the Braves have had with their pitching staff has been closer AJ Minter not being able to actually close lately. Minter has fallen on a bit of a rough patch, allowing 10 earned runs in his last 3.2 innings of work while losing three games. Dylan Lee and Nick Anderson have pitched well for the back part of that bullpen, but the team will need Minter to return to form if they are going to hold off the New York Mets.

The Atlanta offensive has been paced by the other-worldly Ronald Acuña Jr., batting .362 with a 1.035 OPS, Acuna has also swiped 14 bags. Sean Murphy, Matt Olson, and Ozzie Albies all have eight homers, and once Austin Riley gets going, this will a tough lineup to contend with. Atlanta currently sits 11th in Major League Baseball with 22 stolen bases, but the return of Michael Harris II from the injured list will see the Braves running more as he contributed 20 steals last year on his way to the National League Rookie of the Year award.