2023 has been a special season for the Atlanta Braves so far. Records are being broken left and right with spectacular performances from the entire lineup. Let's' check out 15 of the best Braves players from the first 5 months of the season.
15. AJ Minter
Since the beginning of June, AJ Minter has been lights out. He has 27 strikeouts in 25.2 innings, allowing just five earned runs. That is good for a 1.75 ERA and an opponent batting average of .198. He has picked up 13 holds in that time with three saves. Due to his rough beginning to the season, (6.66 ERA through the first two months) his rWAR has been suppressed since Baseball Reference puts more value on runs allowed than FIP. Minter’s fWAR is 1.2 because Fangraphs essentially gives WAR to guys who strike out many people and have good FIPs, regardless of the actual runs allowed. For these reasons, Minter is the Braves’ 15th-best player heading into September.
14. Raisel Iglesias
Raisel Iglesias didn’t make his first appearance until May 6th. He came out of the gate with a couple of rocky outings. He gave up four earned runs in his four starts. Since those first four appearances, Iglesias has posted a 2.11 ERA with 24 saves and just one blown save. He has struck out 51 hitters in 38.1 innings over that span. He has been effective at both striking batters out (11.9 SO9) and limiting runs (2.81 ERA). Therefore, he has very similar WAR scores from both Fangraphs (1.1) and Baseball-Reference (1.0).
13. Eddie Rosario
Eddie Rosario has been smoking hot lately. He is sitting on 20 homers for the year with a .262 batting average. We won’t talk about his OBP but he is slugging .484. Despite his lowly OBP, he still has an OPS (OBP+SLG) 10% better than the league average. He has 42 extra-base hits on the season with 20 doubles and two triples. That means Rosario is getting an extra-base hit every nine at-bats this year. He has posted a 0.9 rWAR and a 1.3 fWAR in 2023.
Also Read: 2 Potential Free Agent Upgrades Over Eddie Rosario in 2024