Atlanta Braves Mid-Season Awards

We have reached the mid season break in 2023, and the Atlanta Braves sit atop the baseball mountain. Owning the best record in MLB requires some production from numerous guys on the roster.

Yesterday we handed out team grades for each category, but today we are going to hand out individual accolades to the best first half performers.

Biggest surprise: Orlando Arcia

Coming into spring training, the Braves had two position battles on their radars. One of those was the starting shortstop role after the department of Dansby Swanson in free agency. The competition for the role featured young Vaughn Grissom, Orlando Arcia, and we even heard Braden Shewmake’s name thrown into the ring late spring.

Many thought it was Grissom’s job to lose during the battle. He was even having a great spring, but to the shock of many the Braves broke camp with Arcia as the guy at short. They even gave him a three-year extension before the season started.

The move has only fed more into the thought that AA is playing chess, while the rest of the league plays checkers. Arcia has been steady with the glove all season and hit since the first pitch of the season. He missed some time with a wrist injury, but has still produced a 1.9 fWAR on the year. I’m sure the Braves would have been happy for Arcia to be a solid fielder and flirt with league average offensive production. Instead they got this:

• .294/.345/.424 slash line

• .337 wOBA (career high)

• 108 wRC+ (career high)

• 94th percentile in Outs Above Average (OAA)

Those good numbers made Orlando Arcia the starting shortstop for the NL All-Star team. The production he has provided at the bottom of the lineup is a big reason for the success of the offense. There is truly no weak spots in the lineup. Arcia did cool off a bit at the end of July, but every time you think he’s about to come back to earth offensively he has a three-hit game.

(Honorable mention to Michael Tonkin, who has been an excellent innings eater for the bullpen, and has been another quality find by AA).

Unsung hero: Sean Murphy

In 2022 the Braves had one of the best catching tandems in the league. So it certainly came as a shock to see the Braves trade a fan-favorite for another catcher when it wasn’t considered a position of need. In case it wasn’t obvious yet, we should probably stop questioning anything Alex Anthopoulos does.

AA brought in Sean Murphy who was known as a good underrated player, who possibly could improve once he got to a more hitter friendly park, and lineup with a bit more protection around him. He has far exceeded everyone’s expectations for him. We knew the defense was elite, but was holding out hope that the offense would take the next step.

In May I wrote about his MVP candidacy with the thought some offensive regression was due. That simply hasn’t really happened yet. In fact Murphy is on pace to set career highs in batting average, OBP, slugging, wOBA, wRC+, and fWAR.

The offense as a whole has been amazing for the whole year. But only two players have went the entire first half without much of an extended offensive slump. One of those is Sean Murphy, and the other…well we will get to him later.

Cy Young: Bryce Elder

This really boiled down to two candidates on the team. If I told you that in March, I’m sure you would be racing to look up Max Fried and Spencer Strider’s stats. However, this award was a battle between the mustached man and the other big surprise of 2023, Bryce Elder.

Both were named All-Stars and both are deserving of recognition. Strider has been historic once again and seems to be hitting his STRIDE (I’m so sorry) heading into the second half. However, I decided to pick Elder because he has really stepped up and kept the Braves in so many ballgames.

His numbers have been incredible. Elder owns a 2.97 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and 150 ERA+. His slider has been one of the highest value pitches in baseball. He doesn’t strikeout the Calvary like Strider, but he does do a good job of getting the ball on the ground and limiting big innings.

If you were to ask me who the 2nd half Cy Young will be, Elder would probably be 4th on my list. I do think a regression is to be expected, and we sort of saw signs of that in his final start of the first half. Strider and a healthy Fried certainly project to anchor the rotation in the stretch run of 2023. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give Elder his flowers for an incredible first half.