Is it time for the Atlanta Braves to address Ozzie Albies' defense?

Last April, Ozzie Albies defense sparked some concern when finished the month with -5 OAA, fourth-worst in baseball. At the time, I looked through the footage and found that he was getting to the balls he needed, but wasn't making the plays. I concluded that these were most likely a fluke and that his defense should normalize back to around average.

Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case for the Atlanta Braves 2B. Although the start to his 2024 season hasn't been as rough, he has been among the worst defensive 2B in baseball. Is it time for the Braves to address his defense? What can even be done to fix it?

What's wrong with Ozzie Albies defense?

When Ozzie Albies first came up to the majors, his defense was stellar. In his first full big league season, he accumulated 12 OAA, a career-high, and averaged 1.75 OAA from 2019 until 2022.

Although he wasn't necessarily Gold Glove material outside of his 2018, he was a dependable defensive player who would make the plays he needed to make.

Last season, Albies took a huge step back, finishing among the worst 2B in the league with -10 OAA.

This year, he's on pace to match that, as he's been worth -3 OAA 41 games into the Braves season. I noted last year that he was getting to balls going to his right, but not putting a glove on them. Overall last season, he was worth -7 OAA on balls toward 3B.

This season, he just isn't getting to balls. Of course, because of the camera angle, it's impossible to tell how good of a jump he got on the ball. But here are just a few plays he just couldn't get to.

And here are just a few weird plays. On this single to Luis Arraez, he opts not to snag it on a line, and instead take a step back to field it on a hop. This allows Arraez, who is anything from fleet of foot to reach on an infield single.

This is Albies' lone error, an easy play that he airmailed.