Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson broke yet another record on Tuesday evening with his 45th homer of the season. This placed him back atop the MLB home run leaderboard but also set franchise history.
Olson went back-to-back with Austin Riley in a game for the 7th time this season. That home run put Olson ahead of Andres Galarraga for the most homers hit in a single season by an Atlanta Braves first baseman.
Matt added to that record with his 46th homer of the year Wednesday in the Braves' loss to the Cardinals. That tied him with Eddie Matthews who reached that mark in 1959. He is now just the 5th player in Atlanta history with 45+ homers in a single season.
The only players in Braves history with 45+ home runs in a single season:
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) September 6, 2023
▪️Hank Aaron
▪️Eddie Mathews
▪️@RealCJ10
▪️@andruwjones25
▪️@mattolson21 pic.twitter.com/iyiTl5svOK
He is having the best year of his career so far in Atlanta and is on pace to break the franchise record for home runs set by Andruw Jones in 2005. Jones went on to hit 51 home runs that season.
On the year, Olson is slashing .270/.375/.591 with a .966 OPS through 138 games played. His 141 hits are just 7 behind his total from 2022 and 12 hits away from his career-high of 153 achieved in 2021.
Of those 141 hits, 24 of them are doubles, 3 are triples, and 46 are homers. He's walked 88 times and struck out 152 times. Olson has driven in 115 runs which leads all of Major League Baseball and has him just 6 RBI away from tying Galarraga and Freeman for the most RBI (121) by a Braves first baseman in a season.
The franchise record for RBI is 132 and was set by Gary Sheffield in 2003. Olson seems to even have a shot at reaching that record before the season ends. It's crazy knowing that Matt is continuing to shatter records. It's hard to think anyone on the Braves could be having a season this great.
Matt Olson goes down and gets this one for league-leading home run No. 46. pic.twitter.com/6nAENkovcM
— MLB (@MLB) September 7, 2023
Matt is playing himself into the MVP conversation which is heavily saturated at the moment. Ronald Acuna Jr., Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman top that list but Olson is right in the mix as he should be. He's leading baseball in HR and that seemed like it was locked up by Shohei Ohtani for a while but Matt kept creeping up throughout the season.
Now, he stands alone in that category which is great but also stinks a bit as Ohtani being hurt definitely helped a bit. It would have been fun to watch them go back and forth the rest of the season for that lead. All eyes will be on the Atlanta native as he approaches Andruw's home run record.
It would be nice if it worked out where he broke it on the night the Braves retire Andruw's number but that happens on Saturday, September 9th. Olson would have to go on a massive tear to break the record in a couple of days.
Matt Olson has been one of the best acquisitions Alex Anthopoulos has ever made and I'm so glad Atlanta was able to bring him over. Knowing we have a first baseman of this caliber for many years to come is a great thing.