Atlanta Braves fans have been waiting to see Austin Riley return to his elite form after a couple of down years. Injury has plagued him a bit, and he's played just 212 games over the last two seasons. Riley is an incredibly important part of the clubhouse, but the Braves need him on the field. When he is at his best, he's one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball. There's hope that 2026 will be his chance to remind everyone how great he is.
From 2021 through 2023, Atlanta's third baseman had a .286/.354/.525 slash line over 478 games. He had 526 hits, including 104 doubles, 108 home runs, 297 RBI, an 18.8 WAR, and a 135 OPS+. Those are some very impressive numbers, with two All-Star selections as well.
His WAR dipped to 4.2 over the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He slashed .258/.316/.445 with 46 doubles, 35 homers, 110 RBI, and an 111 OPS+. His defense has taken a bit of a dive during that time as well. Even with Riley's down season in 2025, he was nominated for a Silver Slugger.
Riley seems to be on his way back to being one of the best bats in the National League. While he's worked hard to fix some timing issues, he's also gone with a new look to signify that change.
Austin Riley on growing the hair out: “Just needed a reset after last season.”
— Reggie Chatman Jr. (@ReggieChatman) February 12, 2026
He says he worked alongside Tim Hyers who looked at his best years and found ways this offseason to fix hip slide. Says it messed up timing.
Feels really good about the work he did to improve. pic.twitter.com/i3I3Z58nP6
Austin Riley thinks he has fixed a flaw in his swing which is great news for the Braves if that is true
Riley is now sporting longer hair and a beard. Baseball players are known to be very superstitious, and if this helps get the powerful righty back to form, so be it. Hitting coach Tim Hyers has apparently been working with Riley this offseason to try and course correct. They looked at video from Riley's best years to pinpoint any issues. It seems that one of his main shortcomings was a hip slide.
Hip slides are one of the biggest things that affect a batter's swing. This happens when the hitter goes to hit the ball and throw their hip towards the baseball, or towards the pitcher. This causes the batter to not hit the ball with as much authority and power.
Those are things that Riley normally excels at, and the timing has not allowed him to be as successful at the plate. Atlanta's third baseman was still extremely impressive in some important analytic categories. He excelled last season in xSLG (.472), average exit velocity (92.3 mph), barrel % (15.2), hard-hit % (50.2), LA sweet spot % (37.0), and bat speed (75.9 mph).
But you can see the issues once you get past those impressive marks. He struggled horribly in squared up % (19.9), chase % (27.7), whiff % (29.5), strikeout % (28.6), and walk % (6.0). Hopefully, Hyers has Riley on the right track to squaring up more baseballs and not chasing as many breaking balls in the dirt. If he can improve that, the rest of the league will be on notice.