![\"Atlanta](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUT-l-sale-03132026.jpg\")
Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale delivers in the first inning of a spring training baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in North Port, Fla., Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gerald Herbert)\nKEEP AN EYE ON<\/p>\n
ATLANTA BRAVES<\/p>\n
2025 finish: 76-86 (4th in NL East)
\nManager: Walt Weiss (1st season)
\nLeading the front office: Alex Anthopoulos, president of baseball operations and general manager (7th season)<\/p>\n
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DOLLARS AND SENSE<\/p>\n
Largest luxury tax hit: 3B Austin Riley ($21.2 million)
\nTop returning players: 1B Matt Olson (4.7 fWAR), OF Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. (3.5), C Drake Baldwin (3.1)
\nTop returning starting pitchers: LHP Chris Sale (3.6), RHP Spencer Schwellenbach (2.4), LHP Joey Wentz (1.3)
\nTop returning relievers: RHP Raisel Iglesias (1.0), RHP Tyler Kinley (0.6), LHP Aaron Bummer (0.4)<\/p>\n
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ROSTER WATCH<\/p>\n
Key additions: RHP Robert Suarez (free agent), OF Mike Yastrzemski (free agent), SS Mauricio Dubon (trade), C Jonah Heim (free agent), UT Jorge Mateo (free agent), RHP Ian Hamilton (free agent), LHP Danny Young (free agent), C Chadwick Tromp (minors), 1B Dominic Smith (minors), INF Kyle Farmer (minors), INF Aaron Schunk (minors), OF Ben Gamel (minors), OF Jose Azocar (minors), LHP Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez (minors), RHP Javy Guerra (minors), RHP Tayler Scott (minors)
\nKey losses: DH Marcell Ozuna (free agent), RHP Cal Quantrill (free agent), RHP Charlie Morton (free agent), OF Jake Fraley (free agent), RHP Pierce Johnson (free agent), RHP John Brebbia (free agent), RHP Alexis D\u00edaz (free agent), OF Alex Verdugo (free agent), SS Nick Allen (trade)
\nBaseball America top-100 prospect(s): LHP Cam Caminiti (53), RHP JR Ritchie (84)<\/p>\n
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Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale delivers in the first inning of a spring training baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in North Port, Fla., Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gerald Herbert)
\nKEEP AN EYE ON<\/p>\n
Jurickson Profar signed a three-year, $42 million deal before the 2025 season, drew a PED suspension four games into the season and the Braves lost seven games in a row in a dismal start that buried their season before it ever got off the ground. OF Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., C Sean Murphy, 3B Austin Riley, 2B Ozzie Albies, LHP Chris Sale and RHPs Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Grant Holmes, Reynaldo Lopez and Joe Jimenez all missed significant time to injury as the Braves saw a string of seven straight postseason appearances snapped. Now Profar will miss all of 2026 after a second PED suspension and the Braves will have to double down to make sure the dominoes don\u2019t fall like they did last year.
\nStill only 28 years old, the oft-injured Acu\u00f1a hasn\u2019t played a full season since winning the NL MVP with 41 homers, 73 steals and a 1.012 OPS. Getting back to that over a full healthy season will help the Braves weather not having Profar the entire year.
\nHealth will also be important to a pitching staff that didn\u2019t have anyone make more starts than RHP Bryce Elder\u2019s 28 (5.30 ERA). Strider (4.45 ERA) made just 23 starts, Holmes (3.99 ERA) made 21, Sale (2.58) made 20 and Schwellenbach (3.09 ERA) made 17.<\/p>\n
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Fangraphs projection: 90.6 wins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA BRAVES 2025 finish: 76-86 (4th in NL East) Manager: Walt Weiss (1st season) Leading the front office:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-631715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116255947520931802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}