The 2025 season has been one of the most pitiful in recent Atlanta Braves history. Too many injuries to list and horrific underperformance plagued them. After seven straight seasons reaching the playoffs, they find themselves missing the postseason and in competition to finish last in the division.
That's not what any Braves fan expected for this season, but that's the nature of baseball sometimes. There have been some good things to be excited for, including the emergence of Drake Baldwin, but the good has easily been outweighed by the bad during what has been a dumpster fire of a season.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of players whose futures are in question after this season as well as one who has set themself up for success. Let's take a look at three players whose futures may have changed ahead of the 2026 season.
Here are the Braves players whose outlooks have radically changed because of the 2025 season
Sean Murphy
Murphy has struggled to stay on the field and has underperformed since the first half of 2023. Unfortunately, the Braves found out why he's not been what they expected offensively. He has been dealing with a hip injury he tried playing through the last three seasons. Now, it's so bad he will need surgery on it.
Atlanta is lucky Drake Baldwin has proven to be very good at the big league level. Now with another injury to Murphy, Baldwin could be the primary backstop next season. The Braves like having two quality catchers, but this latest injury could have them contemplating Murph being a back up (a very expensive one at that) or moving him in the offseason.
Hurston Waldrep
Waldrep had a very rough start to his young career in 2024 as he earned an ERA over 16 in just seven innings. Fortunately, for him and the Braves, he's improved massively this year and looks like a completely different pitcher. Adding a sinker to his repertoire and working on his mechanics has worked wonders.
Currently, he has a 2.78 ERA over 45.1 innings with 18 walks and 42 strikeouts even with his recent rough start against the Astros. The walks are still a bit of a concern, so he will need to work on improving that a bit. But it feels like he's shown enough to have a shot at the Opening Day roster in 2026.
Jarred Kelenic
Kelenic had hopes of turning things around once he got traded Atlanta after what was a harrowing tenure with the Mariners. That has not been his experience at all. The outfielder only appeared in 24 games this season before being sent down to Triple-A Gwinnett, where he's spent most of 2025.
Kelenic won't see any time at the MLB level next season unless something crazy (and probably very unfortunate) happens. He's only batting .213 over 95 games at Triple-A with four homers, 17 doubles, and five RBI. Kelenic was on the IL for a brief stint as well. Don't be surprised if the Braves consider trading him in the offseason.