Building a playoff team out of former Atlanta Braves players

2B - Jace Peterson

Unfortunately, the selection of former Braves that play second base and who are also still active is not particularly awesome. However, Jace Peterson fits the bill as a throwback from the days of the Braves' rebuild and he is still somehow still hanging around the league. Since he left the Braves after the 2017 season, Jace has played for five different teams as a utility guy and appeared in 130 games this year. He would be batting low in this lineup, though.

SS - Dansby Swanson

Another no-doubter here as Dansby was the inspiration for this list to begin with and he is miles better than the other active players that have played short for the Braves. Not much to say here other than Dansby is a stud and while there are reasons why the seven year, $177 million deal Dansby got was a bit much to pay him, no one should fault him for taking that deal.

3B - Josh Donaldson

Austin Riley has been playing third for the Braves long enough to make this one kinda hard especially with the number of journeymen that played third for the Braves before that. However, Josh Donaldson gets the nod here almost by default. His 2019 season was a fantastic season, but injuries and Father Time have taken their toll on Josh since he left in free agency for the . He has shown glimpses of his former self at times in 2023 with the Yankees and Brewers, but he is hitting just .157 in 46 games this season.

RF - Jason Heyward

A roster like this wouldn't feel right without including Jason Heyward given that the Braves' decision to trade him to the Cardinals was the beginning of the rebuild. J-Hey has actually had a really nice bounce back season in 2023 for the Dodgers as he has been worth 2.3 fWAR with a 124 wRC+. His defensive numbers aren't what they once were, but he can still cover a lot of ground in right and is a worthy addition to this list.

CF - Adam Duvall 

Center field isn't exactly where you want to be playing Adam Duvall, but he has done it before and played well out there in the past. Duvall has been very similar to how he was with the Braves as he will have stretches where he goes quiet before he goes nuts for a couple weeks. Injuries remain a concern with him as Adam missed a bunch of time this year, but adding him to this roster gives the Braves another dangerous bat from the right side.