The sadness and frustration that came from the Atlanta Braves' elimination from the 2026 postseason still lingers, but it's time to look ahead to the offseason. There are a lot of unknowns among arbitration-eligible players, pending free agents, and a potential MLB lockout.
It's a lot to consider, but there will be ample time to mull things over. Atlanta's offense will be a hot topic of conversation in the offseason. They looked unstoppable at the beginning of the season, but that changed after a couple of months. Somehow, they won the NL East and broke their curse of losing in the first round of the playoffs. However, the offense seemingly forgot to show up against the Dodgers in the NLDS. Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies were the only ones making any noticeable impact.
Some of the issues extended offensively to the team's ability to use ABS challenges. The Braves were one of the worst teams during the regular season at using these challenges when batting. Atlanta challenged 120 times and was successful on just 50 of them. That's a 42% success rate during the season offensively. Pitchers fared a little better, with a 61% success rate on 183 challenges.
The problem with most of their offensive challenges is that they utilized them too early in the game or in situations where they shouldn't have. What's odd is that the Braves were one of the better teams at ABS challenges in the postseason.
After being terrible in the regular season, the Braves saw progress with ABS that they must carry into 2027
Atlanta certainly had the most at 15 total over the seven games played. They had a 51% success rate: 8 challenges won and 7 challenges lost. There were a couple of hiccups, like Ronald Acuña Jr. using a challenge and failing in the first inning against the Dodgers. That ruined any opportunity to confidently use challenges from that point on.
This needs to be an area of focus in the offseason. The Braves need to be more efficient with their challenges and pick the appropriate spots to use them. Using a challenge on the first pitch of an at-bat, unless it's clearly egregious, isn't the best time to use it. Neither is the first or second inning.
It has been interesting to see it used at the big league level, and it's been pretty successful. But it's another thing Atlanta couldn't seem to find consistency with in 2026.
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