BREAKING NEWS: Braves ownership took umbrage about some placements

The Atlanta Braves boast some of the best players in baseball, a veteran-heavy clubhouse.

However, some of their players seem to be growing weary of all the “lists” that don’t seem to give specific players the credit they deserve. Not all of the hate stems from Braves players being in the incorrect location; one such example is MLB Network’s exclusion of Ozzie Albies from their ranking of the MLB Top 10 Second Basemen.

First baseman Matt Olson was not pleased with ESPN’s latest ‘Top 100 players in MLB’ piece since it listed three senior players who had poor seasons.

When speaking with Buster Olney, Olson criticized the positions of Mike Trout, an outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels, and Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, infielders for the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I know there’s always recency bias,” Olson said, “but I’m a little more swayed by the guys who have been there and done it for a while… Mike Trout at 19.” Olson was referring to Trout, who came in at number 19 on the list. Olson gave a straightforward explanation for his low rating. That is absurd.

After finishing in second place four times, with three AL MVP awards, and two other top-five vote totals in the past ten years, Trout has established himself as one of the finest players of this generation. However, Olson attributes Trout’s poor ranking to the fact that he has only played 237 games over the last three seasons due to a variety of injuries.
Olson exclaimed, “Nolan Arenado at No. 44? That recency bias also weighs into Arenado and Goldschmidt’s rankings. At 47, Goldschmidt? That is really unusual.

2023 saw both players regress offensively, with Arenado hitting “only”.266, 20 points below his career average, and losing his winning streak of 10 Gold Gloves.

The 2022 National League MVP, Goldschmidt, hit.268 and hit 25 home runs, which were the lowest totals for any season in his thirteen-year career. For the third time in his career, he failed to earn any of the three major honorifics (All-Star, Gold Glove, or Silver Slugger), ending his eight-game winning streak among the top twenty MVP finishers.

Numerous other MLB players expressed similar opinions, agreeing that the list acted too quickly to elevate young players who had a single successful season and to disregard veteran players who had one poor year.

According to the story, Braves reliever A.J. Minter did just that, claiming that teammate Ozzie Albies was improperly positioned behind Baltimore Orioles rookie Gunnar Henderson, the winner of the AL Rookie of the Year award the previous season. Also cited was Minter’s call for the inclusion of more relievers on the list (there were already only four).

“I wish there were more closers and relievers here,” Minter remarked. “You’ve got Devin [Williams, at No. 99] barely making it, and he’s definitely been one of the more dominant relievers-slash-closers in the past three years.”

However, Braves star Spencer Strider, who should have been in the top 10 but finished at number fifteen, was one young player that was frequently viewed as being too low in the rankings. According to Twins infielder Kyle Farmer, “facing him is not fun.” “As it passes by, his fastball yells at you.” In the NL, he’s my favourite to win Cy Young this year.”