{"id":666906,"date":"2026-04-06T19:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666906\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:00:17","slug":"braves-212m-former-mvp-candidate-2-time-all-star-sets-off-alarms-with-ice-cold-start-to-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666906\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves’ $212M former MVP candidate, 2-time All-Star sets off alarms with ice-cold start to season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Braves<\/a>\u2019 last couple of seasons have seen Austin Riley struggle. Those struggles have come after he signed his massive $212 million deal<\/a>. Riley has been disappointing to watch at times, whether due to prolonged slumps or injuries.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just hard to agree that it has been a worthy investment thus far, with his performance middling out and a couple of season-ending injuries. Those things aren’t his fault, but it’s tough not having him on the field,\u201d HTHB\u2019s Steven Teal said. \u201cRiley is one of the best hitters in baseball when he is healthy and staying disciplined at the plate. There’s plenty of reason to be optimistic that he can return to form. However, he will have to work hard next season to convince fans that he will be more than an average player the remainder of his Braves career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, injuries plagued Riley\u2019s 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cBraves 3B Austin Riley is seeing a specialist, Dr. William Meyers, today in Philadelphia to diagnose the recurring abdominal soreness that\u2019s twice landed him on the IL and could be a sports hernia. Meyers is a leading authority in core muscle injuries,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s David O\u2019Brien wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n

So far, a couple of weeks into the season, Riley has slumped at the plate, leaving many wondering when his hot streak will arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince opening day, Riley is 3-for-31 (.097), with three walks, two RBIs and an extra-base hit. He’s gone hitless in three consecutive games twice. We can point to any particular situation or split. He just hasn’t performed well in any situation since the first game of the season. He left a runner stranded in both of his trips to the plate on Sunday. When he came in to pinch hit in the top of the eighth inning, he popped up with a runner on first base with two outs. Then, with a runner on third with two outs in the top of the 10th, he hit a soft fly ball to right field to retire the side,\u201d SI\u2019s Harrison Smajovitts wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n

If Riley were on a standard contract, this level of concern likely wouldn\u2019t surface so quickly. However, he signed the largest contract in Braves history, and expectations come with that territory. The third baseman will need to figure things out quickly.<\/p>\n

With each passing year since signing the deal, questions have continued to grow about whether Riley has lived up to expectations. There is understandable concern given his current numbers, but there is still time for him to turn things around.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Braves\u2019 last couple of seasons have seen Austin Riley struggle. Those struggles have come after he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-666906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116359307605453516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666906","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=666906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}