The 2025 MLB season is almost upon us! With about one week to go before the Cubs and Dodgers do battle in Tokyo, each team is gearing up for the long, annual 162-game grind.
Each day this week at Call To The Pen, we'll take a look at every team in every division and analyze their best and worst-case scenarios for the 2025 season. We've already looked at the AL East. Now, let's see how their neighbors in the National League stack up.
Atlanta Braves
Best-case scenario: Everybody stays healthy. Right away, that’s an upgrade over last year, since Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna Jr., Spencer Strider and Michael Harris II all missed significant time in 2024. If they return to established form for 150 games, the Braves are automatically two or three games better than their 89-73 record of a season ago.
It would also be nice if Matt Olson re-discovered the power strike he lost last season. His .790 OPS was nice by human standards, but it was 200 percentage points down from 2023.
The third piece of Atlanta’s dream scenario involves one of their pitching prodigies — A.J. Smith-Shawver is the logical candidate — making his mark on the rotation. As long as Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Strider stay healthy, the Braves don’t really need Smith-Shawver, except what are the odds of all starters staying healthy?
Give Atlanta those three elements, and the Braves are capable of making a run at any goal: division title, NL pennant, World Series.
Worst-case scenario: The Braves saw the worst-case scenario play out in 2024. Albies missed 60 games, Riley and Harris each missed 50, and Acuna sat out more than 100. Strider, meanwhile, made just two starts before elbow issues sidelined him.
And the injury bug is already biting again. Acuna is still recovering from his ACL tear and probably won’t take the field until some time in May. Strider isn’t due back until late April at best, and Riley ‘s spring progress has been slowed.
Still, it’s worth noting that despite all that 2024 pain and misery, the Braves won 89 games and played October ball. Not well, but they played it. Since it’s hard to imagine the manpower situation getting more dire than it was, even the worst-case scenario finds room for the Braves this October.
Most-likely scenario: Acuna plays two-thirds of a season, and Riley is something approaching his old self. But Olson struggles to find his consistent power stroke, Albies and Harris are only average, and Strider maybe works in 20 starts and 120 innings. The Braves make a run at Philadelphia, come up short, and get into the playoffs as a wild card.