Braves' biggest offseason mistake was on full display in loss to Yankees

Atlanta Braves v New York Mets
Atlanta Braves v New York Mets | Dustin Satloff/GettyImages

You won't find many losses more brutal than the one the Atlanta Braves suffered against the Yankees on Saturday night. Things started so well with a surprisingly good outing from Joey Wentz who New York seemed to have no answer to and the offense had come alive. Thanks largely to Ozzie Albies' huge game, Atlanta had staked out an impressive 7-2 lead after five innings. Unfortunately, things went sideways after that thanks to the Braves' front office's worst miscalculation from last offseason.

Over the next four innings, the Braves's bullpen gave up 10 earned runs including the game-winning grand slam in the top of the ninth inning to Trent Grisham. Unfortunately, this sort of loss has become all too common this season for the Braves and it is entirely the front office's fault.

Braves' lack of bullpen reinforcement last offseason still haunts their 2025 season

It would be one thing if this was an exception to the rule for the Braves bullpen. Bad nights just happen sometimes. However, this isn't even the worst Braves bullpen collapse this season and the list of embarrassing moments from the team in 2025 just continues to grow. Atlanta has one of the worst records in one-run games at 13-24 and the bullpen is a huge reason why.

This is a problem the Braves should have anticipated. Even if they had no reason whatsoeer to believe that Raisel Iglesias would turn into a pumpkin this season, the team had to know that relievers are the most volatile asset in baseball and they knew AJ Minter was leaving and Joe Jimenez was hurt with months to spare in the offseason. That they didn't get more relief help is pretty mind-blowing.

Instead, we have to watch retreads like Wander Suero, Enyel De Los Santos, and Rafael Montero fumble about in the middle innings and hope that Iglesias doesn't serve up a game-breaking homer as was the case on Saturday. In a season where nothing can seemingly go right for very long, the bullpen has been arguably been the worst part because no game feels safe anymore.

The sad part is that the one thing this Braves' front office has always been good at, bringing in bullpen help at the trade deadline, probably isn't even on the table as Atlanta is likely to sell. That means that Braves fans are in for a long second half watching this relief corps the rest of the season make games far more "interesting" than they need to be.

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