Of all of the hitters on the Atlanta Braves right now, Ozzie Albies may be the most frustrating outside of maybe the 2026 version of Austin Riley. When Albies is on, the Braves' offense comes alive, and he is very capable of carrying the entire team if necessary. However, when he is bad or dinged up, Albies' at-bats are almost painful to watch. Fortunately, the good version of Albies is showing himself once again.
Seemingly healthy this season, Albies has continued his somewhat characteristic streaky nature in 2026. Through the end of April, Albies had a .323/.368/.540 line with seven homers. However, that hot start from Albies was offset by having a really tough time for most of the month of May.
Right on cue, the version of Albies that has made multiple All-Star teams and was considered one of the best second basemen in all of baseball is showing himself again. It is safe to say that the Braves could get a really nice boost if this version could stick around for a while.
Ozzie Albies is heating up again, but that doesn't mean he is officially "back"
From May 1 to May 23, Albies was almost unplayably bad at the plate, no matter how you looked at things. Over the course of those 92 plate appearances, Albies could only muster a terrible .498 OPS with one homer and just seven RBI. He was swinging at everything, and the result was very often a strikeout or weak contact. Not ideal.
However, Albies must have sensed that a new month was coming, because he is showing signs of getting back on a similar streak to the one he started 2026 with. Over his last nine games, Albies has posted a 1.049 OPS with a couple of homers and just three strikeouts over those 39 plate appearances, although he has also only walked twice over that same span.
Unfortunately, Albies' profile sort of invites this kind of inconsistency. Because he isn't a guy that hits the ball hard with regularity nor does he draw many walks, Albies' fortunes often come down to how well he is seeing certain pitches at any given moment and if the BABIP gods are feeling kind. If the grounders are getting through and Albies is reading pitches well, good times are had. When he isn't as lucky and/or he is guessing badly, it gets ugly in a hurry.
It is definitely irksome that we can never really know when Albies is going to flip the switch on and off. Building a lineup with a switch-hitter that is this mercurial can go from looking genius to being a disaster very quickly. For now, it looks like the Albies that Braves fans have grown to love over the years are back. Hopefully, he sticks around.
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