With the new year arriving, it is becoming pretty clear that the Atlanta Braves are mostly done with their offseason moves in all likelihood. The Tatsuya Imai rumors were fun, but the number of impact players that do not have qualifying offers attached that could interest the Braves is very small at best and there are no obvious areas of need at the moment. On offense specifically, it looks like Atlanta is completely set on their plan.
Is that plan going to be good enough? That is a fair question given how much the offense has struggled with regression and injuries the last couple of years. However, Bleacher Report recently put out their projections for every team's Opening Day lineup and honestly, the Braves' lineup contains a pretty intriguing.
Bleacher Report thinks the Braves should have two switch-hitters back-to-back and honestly, that could work
One can quibble a bit with the placement first four names in B/R's lineup for the Braves, but some combination of Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, and Drake Baldwin feels right and would allow Walt Weiss to alternate handedness make opposing bullpens work. Where things get interest are that B/R next has Jurickson Profar and Ozzie Albies, two switch-hitters, batting fifth and sixth.
There are a lot of schools of thought with how to build a Braves lineup. If you believe that Profar is a strong OBP guy who can get back to his 2024 form, there is an argument for moving him up. If you think Albies is cratering in front of our eyes, moving him down makes sense.
However, what this configuration does do is allow the Braves to take advantage of the top of the lineup's production regardless of handedness. While not perfect, both Profar and Albies can be very dangerous hitters and ones that can swap sides of the plate in order to take advantage of whatever matchup is presented to them. Tough lefty? Hope that Acuña and Riley do good work and then have two impact righties to do damage. Rough righty-matchup? That is Olson and Baldwin's time to shine and then have two competent lefties to follow them up with.
It isn't a perfect plan as Profar's PED suspension raised questions about his true production and Albies isn't going to help from either side of the plate if he can't stay healthy. However, it is a plan that could actually work and one we could easily see at the start of the 2026 season.