Braves\u2019 recent slide has exposed major weaknesses ahead of the MLB trade deadline<\/a><\/p>\nBefore Tuesday\u2019s game, hitting coach Tim Hyers recorded Riley\u2019s batting practice sessions and reviewed the video with him afterward, offering feedback and mechanical adjustments. On Wednesday, Riley also spent time talking with Hall of Famer Chipper Jones during batting practice.<\/p>\n
Riley had a pair of opportunities to do damage in Tuesday\u2019s game against the Cardinals, coming to the plate twice with two runners on base. Both at-bats, however, ended in swinging strikeouts. As he walked back to the dugout after the second one, the boos from the Truist Park crowd made their feelings clear.<\/p>\n
Wednesday brought a similar story. Riley struck out in his first at-bat against right-hander Michael McGreevy on three pitches before fanning again against a Max Rajcic sweeper in the dirt with a runner on second base. He did, however, show signs of life in the eighth inning, driving in Mauricio Dubon with an RBI single to snap an 0-for-14 skid.<\/p>\n
The slump has become so uncharacteristic that the Braves are trying everything they can to help Riley rediscover the form that made him one of baseball\u2019s premier third basemen from 2021-23. During that three-year stretch, Riley hit 108 home runs and finished in the top seven of National League MVP voting each season.<\/p>\n
The Braves rewarded Riley with a franchise-record $212 million contract in 2022, and while it paid off in 2023, the seasons since have been disappointing. Riley\u2019s power declined in 2024 and 2025, and both campaigns were cut short by season-ending injuries.<\/p>\n
All Riley can do is stick with what works. Riley showed signs of progress in May, hitting five home runs and recording seven multi-hit games. At one point, he went 6-for-13 before falling into another skid, going hitless over his next 16 at-bats.<\/p>\n
Braves manager Walt Weiss played parts of 14 seasons in the major leagues \u2014 including three with Atlanta \u2014 so he knows exactly what Riley is going through. He makes it a point to encourage players during difficult stretches, something he learned from his former manager, Bobby Cox.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith guys that are struggling, especially, [I] go out of my way to check in with them,\u201d Weiss said in May when reflecting on the late Cox. \u201cI enjoy encouraging guys. I know how hard the game is. Over the course of my career, I struggled at times as much as anybody in this game, so I don\u2019t ever want to forget that. That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s important to be an encourager. You have standards and you want to hold guys accountable to those standards, too, but at the same time you\u2019ve got you got to encourage them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the sort of thing Bobby was great at.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Braves have 11 games remaining before the All-Star break, with the trade deadline set for Aug. 3. Whether Atlanta looks to acquire another bat to bolster its lineup for a postseason push remains to be seen. The front office will likely let July play out first, both to evaluate the club\u2019s trajectory and to see whether Riley and several other struggling hitters can find their footing.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Austin Riley hears all the chatter, reads all the criticism and endures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,92078,4206,4166,662,92086,92083,92080,36011,92085,92082,5,35611,192,92079,92084,92081,92087,42000,92088,37309,61164,160,1007,4,21722,20001,35610],"class_list":["post-740962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta-braves-austin-riley","tag-atlanta-braves-news","tag-atlantabraves","tag-austin-riley","tag-austin-riley-batting-average-and-ops","tag-austin-riley-batting-slump","tag-austin-riley-slump","tag-austin-riley-stats","tag-austin-riley-strikeout-rate","tag-austin-riley-struggles","tag-baseball","tag-bobby-cox","tag-braves","tag-braves-austin-riley","tag-braves-hitting-coach","tag-braves-offense","tag-braves-offense-stats","tag-braves-stats","tag-braves-stats-offense","tag-braves-trade-deadline","tag-braves-trades","tag-cardinals","tag-chipper-jones","tag-mlb","tag-nl-east-standings","tag-tim-hyers","tag-walt-weiss"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740962","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=740962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}