If you were to ask the vast majority of Atlanta Braves fans about the last few seasons, the team's injury issues would be among the most popular answers, and that is fair. Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, Sean Murphy, Michael Harris II, and others all missed significant time. Even now, with the Braves rolling along nicely, they still have Schwellenbach, Smith-Shawver, Murphy, Hurston Waldrep, and Drake Baldwin on the shelf. One completely understands the despair that Braves fans have felt, given that list.
But have the Braves been dinged by injuries any more than any other MLB team? That is a much harder and more nuanced question than it seems. However, a great recent article by The Athletic's Eno Sarris and Brittany Ghiroli that broke down how much time MLB teams lost to the injured list since 2024 and postulated some potential causes did give us some data points.
Somewhat surprisingly, Atlanta's injury issues don't actually look that bad at all, although this data doesn't tell the whole story.
Braves somehow rank among the teams that have lost the LEAST number of days to the IL, but it isn't that simple
Now, the article itself identifies the teams that have missed the most and least days to the IL and then drills down on potential causes for those absences, with a focus on the teams that rank among the league's worst. It is a good read, but that thesis isn't really going to be the focus here.
Instead, what is wild is where the Braves rank in all of this. Most Braves fans would guess that while it is possible that Atlanta didn't lose the MOST days to injuries the last couple of years, they have to be up there. Well, that just isn't true. In fact, the data here shows that since the start of the 2024 season, the Braves organization has lost the fifth-LEAST number of days to the IL with 10,767. Only the Cardinals, Athletics, Royals, and Guardians have lost fewer.
There are some caveats here. One, these numbers do include the minor leagues. While that is a great way to paint a picture of entire organizations compared with each other, Braves fans aren't exactly overly concerned with how many days a Braves third-round pick in low-A they have never heard of has missed in this specific discussion. Along the same lines, this data is strictly the quantity of days missed, not necessarily the quality.
Sure, a lot of teams may have missed more days collectively, but the quality of the players the Braves have lost in terms of WAR lost ranks as high as almost anyone. Hell, the Braves' injured list last year looked like a potential NL All-Star roster in other years. It is great that, across the organization, the Braves seem to be doing well in limiting missed time with injuries. However, that doesn't exactly tell the whole story.
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