There are a ton of great storylines for the Atlanta Braves in 2022, we talk about the five biggest ones as Opening Day approaches.
We’re a week away from Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season and the Atlanta Braves are geared up to defend their title.
One of the greatest aspects of a Major League Baseball season are the storylines throughout. The journey of a 162-game season is what makes baseball so special.
There will be storylines created during the season, but there is also some that figure to last from beginning to end.
Here are the five biggest storylines for the Atlanta Braves entering the 2022 season that we’ll be following all year long.
5. Can Austin Riley Repeat His 2021 Performance
One of the biggest surprises in 2021 was the emergence of third baseman Austin Riley. He came into Spring Training last year having to earn the spot — with the Braves even bringing in Jake Lamb as insurance.
Riley won the job and ended up being the most consistent player in the lineup throughout the year as he only had an OPS under .800 in one month.
He finished 2021 with an OPS of .898 to go along with 33 home runs and was a 4.2 WAR player according to FanGraphs — 6.1 by Baseball Reference’s metrics.
This coming after he posted an OPS of .750 and .716 in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Riley being good shouldn’t be a surprise as he was a top 100 prospect entering 2019, but it was a pretty big turnaround that many will wonder if he can do it again.