In desperate need of a strong week to get back on track, the Atlanta Braves instead fell on their faces. They lost an extremely winnable series against the Angels thanks to failures on both sides of the ball and then Baltimore came into Truist Park with the aging Charlie Morton in tow and took the series opener on Friday. Instead of the "Won't Quit" Braves fans had grown accustomed to seeing, this Atlanta team looks lost and ready to throw in the white flag on the 2025 season. Unfortunately, a couple of the chief offenders of this season's malaise are under contract for a long time.
Coming into this season, the Braves were lauded for the number of core players that they were able to ink to seemingly team-friendly contract extensions. A lot of those deals have aged exceedingly well (Ronald Acuña Jr.'s criminally low extension comes to mind), but there are a couple of them that now look like potential mistakes or at least resources they wish they would have spent elsewhere in Michael Harris II and Sean Murphy.
The Braves' extensions to Sean Murphy and Michael Harris II are looking a lot less great these days
Some of the talk about how the Braves' window is completely shut now because of this dumpster fire of a season and Atlanta needs to start over is overblown. There are some fans that will never accept Matt Olson, but he has given the Braves 15 fWAR since he joined the team including a transcendent 2023 season. He has been more than worth the Braves' investment. Austin Riley hasn't been great this season, but he remains dangerous and has still be "fine" overall. Fans shouldn't feel be upset that he is under contract through at least 2032.
However, Harris' eight year, $72 million extension is looking a little problematic at the moment. While not an overly expensive mistake in the grand scheme of things in terms of AAV, having Money Mike on the books through at least 2030 isn't awesome if the 51 wRC+ he has posted in 2025 is his new reality. Harris of course has time to turn things around and he is young enough to figure his issues out, but the results this year have been ugly and locking Harris up so quickly seems to have been premature.
Murphy is a bit of a weirder case. While his six year, $73 million extension wasn't looking great at the start of the season coming off a brutal 2024 season and multiple injury issues, Murphy has honestly been fine this season with a 115 wRC+ and 1.6 fWAR in 53 games. The issue, however, is the emergence of Drake Baldwin who has been even better despite being a rookie and comes a lot cheaper than Murphy. If the Braves knew Baldwin would be this good, one wonders if they would have been so eager to extend Murphy.
Where does that leave the Braves now? Well, the idea of buying at the trade deadline when it comes to saving the 2025 season looks more and more foolish by the day. Some mix of buying and selling short-term assets seems the most likely path, although the Braves will still have to reckon with the amount of long-term contracts they will have on their books for a while.