Atlanta Braves: It’s time to fall in love with Austin Riley again

What does this mean for the future?

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To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what Riley’s first year in the big leagues means for the future, but I know I’m not ready to give up on him after one disastrous month.

The guy dominated baseball at the highest level for a month, why would the Braves give up on that potential?

And I didn’t touch on it in the last slide, but he was actually a pretty good defender in left field and we already know he’s solid at third base.

Also, we know Chipper Jones is never wrong, and he spoke glowingly about Riley’s future in this interview saying he will be a 40 home run guy in the big leagues one day and play a “respectable third base.”

Obviously Riley has some adjustments to make and he has to cut down on the strikeouts. And perhaps he does need to start 2020 in Triple-A to work on those things as our own Matthew Browning points out in this article.

But once the Braves failed to sign Josh Donaldson, the writing was on the wall for me. They feel comfortable enough going forward with the players they have in the system at third base.

And to me, that means Riley is the future.

So if you jumped off the bandwagon in the second half of Riley’s first big league season, you may want to jump back on.

This kid is still young and very talented. As someone who was never that high on him to begin with, I believe he can still have a bright future in Atlanta.