Braves Still in First as Phillies, Nationals Inch Closer

For a fleeting moment this spring, it seemed like the Braves were destined for a ho-hum second half, a National League East crown wrapped up shortly after Labor Day, a bye in the Wild Card round.

But now, at the halfway juncture of the 2026 MLB season, none of those hypothetical scenarios seem to be coming to fruition. Barring a most improbable epic collapse, the Braves still appear to be a lock for October baseball, but the season’s final three months will have their share of drama. And that may not be a bad thing.

Whereas the 2023 Braves coasted in the regular season before coming out flat in the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, this year’s ballclub no longer has an easy pathway to a first-round bye and homefield throughout the postseason. After the Braves’ June swoon — on June 7, the Braves boasted a 45-21 record before enduring a nasty 4-12 stretch — the white-hot Phillies are suddenly in their rearview mirror in the NL East standings while the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers loom as worthy pennant contenders with more comfortable division leads than Atlanta’s.

Nevertheless, Atlanta is still on pace for an excellent 97-65 record, even more impressive considering the recent string of injuries to All-Stars Ronald Acuna Jr., Spencer Strider, Sean Murphy, and reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin (who recently returned to action). First-year Atlanta manager Walt Weiss is skippering a fundamentally sound team stacked with Gold Glove winners and burners on the basepaths. The back-end of the bullpen is elite. The lineup has tremendous depth and power and, generally speaking, tears up left-handed starters — even when lefthanded veteran DH Dominic Smith is not in the lineup.

The Aug. 3 trade deadline is quickly approaching and there’s buzz that two-time defending AL Cy Young Award winner and impending free agent Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers may be headed to Atlanta to shore up the starting rotation. If not him, perhaps veteran right handed starter Sonny Gray from the Boston Red Sox. And taking two out of three from the Brew Crew at Truist Park earlier this month — with wins against frontline starters Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison, no less — was a reminder that Atlanta is still a threat to capture the NL flag. Indeed, as the Braves try to put a dreadful June behind them, the ballclub remains in a fairly enviable position — and one that is a far cry from a year ago when they were buried in the NL East standings by Father’s Day.

“I think everybody’s just loose. I’m not saying that the other years we weren’t loose, but it just seems that everybody is meshing together,” reliever Dylan Lee, he of the 2021 world champion Braves, told the AJT recently. “It’s not like we’ve ever had any cliques, but it just seems like everybody’s on the same page. There’s no pressure — I’m not saying there was before either — it’s just like we’re doing the same stuff we’ve been doing. It’s hard to keep a team together, especially a group of guys like this. They all want to be here. They all want to play every day.”

Meanwhile, the Braves are not without a Jewish representation as journeyman first baseman/designated hitter Rowdy Tellez was promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett in the wake of Acuna Jr. (hamstring) hitting the 10-day injured list. The 31-year-old Tellez flashed signs of his trademark power down in the minors (.483 slugging percentage) and shortly after his call-up, he came off the pine to smash a monstrous two-run bomb against Milwaukee in the aforementioned series finale before cracking a two-run single against San Diego a couple nights later. But, in all likelihood, Tellez doesn’t project to be up in Atlanta very long — Acuna Jr.’s injury is not particularly serious — and will likely be limited to mostly pinch-hitting duty with Matt Olson and Smith having a stranglehold on first base and DH, respectively.

Unfortunately, Tellez, now in his ninth and potentially final big league season, has sparked attention not for anything he’s done, but rather for what he’s elected not to do. Weiss has spoken glowingly about his club’s collective maturity and the veteran leaders, such as Chris Sale, Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies, Olson, and Lee, who make his life easier, but there was a recent notable exception, courtesy of Tellez, who, during a game shortly after the call-up, refused to play in the outfield. The unfortunate situation unfolded in the late innings of Atlanta’s 7-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants on June 17. After pinch-hitting for shortstop Ha-Seong Kim in the bottom of the eighth, Tellez was asked to trot out to right field for the ninth as Atlanta’s injury-depleted outfield was down a couple regulars in Acuna Jr. and Michael Harris II. But Tellez insisted on sliding over to first, forcing Olson to not take the field at his normal position for the first time in an MLB game since Aug. 21, 2017.

Ultimately, the awkward lineup shuffling didn’t factor into the game’s final outcome but Tellez’s intransigence doesn’t bode well for his prospects of staying up in Atlanta for any length of time.

More importantly, from a team perspective, this year’s club seems to once again have outstanding chemistry—but unlike last year, a legitimate chance to play deep into October.

“This team is really special,” said Albies after he slammed a walk-off two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth that sealed the Braves’ series-clinching 4-3 win over the Brewers on June 20 — essentially their proudest moment of the month. “I’ve been on this team for a long time, and it’s a really special group each and every year. This one is definitely one of the top two that I’ve been on. [It’s a] great group of guys. Our staff [does] everything in their power, every single game to go out there and expect to win every day. I’m really honored to be on this team.”