Most Atlanta Braves fans have been aware of the struggles that Ozzie Albies has dealt with in recent years. Ever since Albies signed a seven-year, $35 million extension, he has suffered a multitude of injuries including a bone bruise on his wrist (2020), broken left foot (2022), broken pinky (2022), arthroscopic shoulder surgery (2022), broken toe (2024), broken left wrist (2024), and broken hamate bone in his left hand (2025). Even without accounting for the other bumps and bruises along the way, as well as his bizarre elbow injury during his time in the minors, that is a lot of wear and tear for any player to deal with.
As a result of those injuries (as well as Father Time), Albies had seen his production dip in recent years, and many openly wondered if we were watching Albies' career decline with little chance of ever seeing peak Ozzie again. He has definitely shown flashes of the ability that has made him a four-time All-Star, but the results from the notoriously streaky Albies have still been pretty uneven.
However, that doesn't mean that the Braves' decision to extend Albies will be viewed as a mistake when the dust settles on his tenure in Atlanta. In fact, Albies' contract from the Braves could prove to be one of the team's biggest bargains ever.
Ozzie Albies is the first primary 2B in MLB history to produce 5 or more seasons with 20+ home runs before the age of 30 #BravesCountry
— Shawn Coleman (@StatsSAC) August 12, 2026
Ozzie Albies' contract has been an insane value for the Braves, even if his best days are behind him
When we think about a player's value, the conversation can get pretty nuanced. Expected role, defensive positioning, and clubhouse "presence" are all things that generally do a crappy job of assigning a number to. Then there are the endless debates as to how much defense or extra-base hits or baserunning should "actually" be worth. Those are discussions for a different day. What we do know is how much Albies has been paid and how much his production has been "worth" according to Fangraphs' Dollar per WAR metric, which does give us a general idea as to how well he and the Braves have done since he signed on the dotted line.
If we include this season in full despite there being a bit less than two months remaining, Albies has been paid roughly $37.37 million since the start of 2019. Given the current market rate for quality infielders, that already seems like a crazy good deal without doing any math whatsoever.
Once you do the math, things get even wilder. Based on his production and using Fangraphs' Dollar metric (which, again, basically converts fWAR into a dollar figure based on how much WAR is worth on the open market), Albies has given the Braves a total of $144.4 million worth of production since the start of the 2019 season. That is almost four times as much as Atlanta has actually paid him. Yes, there are players (including some on the Braves' roster) that have been more valuable, but few have been paid as little as Albies outside of the guys still going through arbitration.
Now, some may say that if Albies had actually been able to stay healthy, his deal would have been even better, and duh, of course that is true. However, that isn't much of an argument. All players would be better if they were actually better and stayed healthier, so we aren't exactly dealing with a profound thought process here. That said, Albies has still been one of the better second basemen in baseball and, even if the Braves exercise his club option next year (and they should) and he craters, his contract has been an insane bargain.
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