Thankfully, the Atlanta Braves realized that with all of the bullpen turnover at the start of the offseason, that they were going to have to invest in relief help. That started pretty quickly with the reunion with Raisel Iglesias and after signing Robert Suarez, the Braves have one of the better late inning 1-2 punches in all of baseball. However, one potential problem remains unless Atlanta can get Hayden Harris to take that next step in 2026.
If you look at the Braves' active roster, it doesn't take a genius to realize that Atlanta's pitching staff is pretty righty-heavy. Yes, they do have Chris Sale as one of the best lefties in all of baseball in the rotation, but the options after that get a bit sparse. Aaron Bummer is intriguing, but he seemed to lose Brian Snitker's faith last season and his strikeout numbers did go down. Dylan Lee was the Braves' workhorse lefty reliever and that will likely remain true, but he is just one man and his lack of extension and struggles keeping the ball on the ground could be problematic. Joey Wentz, Dylan Dodd, and Jose Suarez may not even make the team at all without strong springs.
However, if Harris can indeed force his way into the bullpen coming out of spring training, things could get very interesting.
Hayden Harris may be exact the "different look" lefty that the Braves need heading into 2026
Harris is not a guy that is going to blow hitters away with his velocity. He is also about to turn 27 which doesn't normally point to a guy being a potential game-changer given his lack of big league experience to this point.
However, what Harris DOES have is a different look from the left side than hitters will be used to from the Braves. His fastball is uniquely deceptive despite being in the low to mid 90's and gets a lot of swing and miss thanks, in part, to his elite extension. Meanwhile, Harris' slider is really good at getting ground balls rather than being a strikeout pitch. It took Harris a while to figure things out, but he now has the look of a really interesting change of pace reliever that could balance the Braves' bullpen out a bit.
Now, if Harris doesn't get much of a shot at the start of the season, things could get a little weird. Having Bummer and Lee around should be able to cover those innings early in the season, but both relievers showed signs that they may be trending downward. Atlanta could (and perhaps should) guard against that by including Harris as another option or adding another lefty reliever, because rolling the dice feels like asking for trouble.