The Atlanta Braves are reaching a breaking point when it comes to Austin Riley. His struggles are no longer just a short-term slump or the aftereffects of an injury. By all accounts, Riley feels strong and healthy right now, but that has not changed the fact that many of his at-bats are among the worst you are going to watch on any given night.
Diagnosing what is wrong with Riley isn't easy. The truth is that he just looks completely lost and doesn't understand why he can't get to the pitches he used to or recognize pitches quickly enough to react to them. One month of that could be forgiven as working through the problem, but we are well past that now, especially if you count Riley's struggles before his hernia last season.
In fact, things have gotten so bad that it is probably time for manager Walt Weiss to start sitting Riley much more often in the same way that they are currently treating Ha-Seong Kim.
Austin Riley's stature cannot prevent the Braves from sitting him while he figures out what is wrong
Now, the optics of benching Riley would be rough, to be sure. The Braves made a pretty big bet on Riley when they gave him a 10-year, $212 million extension. Benching any player that is making that kind of money is going to raise some eyebrows, especially if it becomes a common occurrence. However, that may be where we are at until Riley can find his swing again.
Over his last 19 games, going back to May 13, Riley has posted a paltry .172/.260/.313 with just two homers and five walks to go along with 26 strikeouts. It is hard to put a spin on that amount of bad. Riley's at-bats are just not competitive most of the time, and it is actually getting worse over time. If Atlanta wants Riley to play a meaningful role this season, they have to get him out of the lineup and do a real deep dive into what is wrong.
What that deep dive would even look like is a fair question to ask. Maybe that just involves calling Chipper Jones and having him work with Riley and only Riley for a couple days straight, breaking down his swing and swing decisions and what has gone right or wrong. Maybe that involves going over a bunch of data and making some mechanical adjustments based on that. Maybe it is all of those things and more. What we know for sure is that what the Braves and Riley are doing right now isn't working, nor is it sustainable.
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