In desperate need of a strong week to get back on track, the Atlanta Braves instead fell on their faces. They lost an extremely winnable series against the Angels thanks to failures on both sides of the ball and then Baltimore came into Truist Park with the aging Charlie Morton in tow and took the series opener on Friday. Instead of the “Won’t Quit” Braves fans had grown accustomed to seeing, this Atlanta team looks lost and ready to throw in the white flag on the 2025 season. Unfortunately, a couple of the chief offenders of this season’s malaise are under contract for a long time.
Coming into this season, the Braves were lauded for the number of core players that they were able to ink to seemingly team-friendly contract extensions. A lot of those deals have aged exceedingly well (Ronald Acuña Jr.’s criminally low extension comes to mind), but there are a couple of them that now look like potential mistakes or at least resources they wish they would have spent elsewhere in Michael Harris II and Sean Murphy.
