For most of the second half, Austin Riley was one of the worst hitters on the Atlanta Braves, and that was very jarring. The Braves made a massive investment in Riley with his contract extension, but a series of unfortunate injuries turned the young third baseman from a potential MVP candidate to a hitter who looked completely lost while flailing wildly at sliders out of the zone. It was sad to watch, but things have started to look better of late.
Through 95 games this season, Riley had a brutal .207/.288/.329 line and was at the point where the idea of benching him wasn't all that crazy of an idea. The strikeouts were piling up, his plate appearances were absolutely brutal to watch, and his inability to do anything offensively made the Braves' deficiency against left-handed pitchers even worse.
However, Riley has been showing some signs lately that he is starting to figure things out at the plate. That said, that does not mean he is finally out of the woods just yet.
Austin Riley has been looking better at the plate, but the strikeouts are still a big problem
In the middle of Riley's worst struggles, Hall of Famer Chipper Jones got more involved in trying to diagnose Riley's swing issues. Jones talked specifically about how Riley's balance was off and that they were trying to shorten his stride up a bit and limit his head movement. Whether it was those adjustments suggested by Chipper, or Riley just making better swing decisions, he has indeed been trending in the right direction.
Over Riley's last 11 games, he has put up a much better .286/.333/.524 line with three homers and eight RBI. In those 11 games, Riley also has four multi-hit games. All of those things are positives and definitely better than the sad display of baseball we had seen out of him for many months now.
Not all the news is good, though. Yes, his batted balls are finding fewer gloves, and Riley is definitely hitting the ball harder. However, the bad news is that Riley is also striking out more than a third of the time, and he has only walked a total of two times over those 45 plate appearances. That...is not ideal and has to rely on a lot of batted-ball luck to make it work.
One simply hopes that what we are seeing is the first in a series of improvements that Riley has in store this season. It isn't as though the guy isn't talented, as we have literally seen him be one of the better hitters in baseball before. If he can't at least get back to being a net-positive in the lineup, that contract is going to be an albatross around the Braves' necks.
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