As Braves await Matt Olson's breakout, Marcell Ozuna and Chris Sale stay hot (2024)

ATLANTA — No player in Atlanta Braves franchise history has hit as many home runs in a season as Matt Olson (54 in 2023), and no major leaguer has hit more homers since the beginning of 2018 than Olson (209). Don’t forget that.

Because while that’s what makes it so surprising to see Olson mired in a career-worst 26-game homer drought and batting a puny .200 with three homers and a .665 OPS overall, it also explains why he’s still batting fourth for the Braves and has been in the lineup every game.

Braves manager Brian Snitker and Olson’s teammates are certain he’s going to break out of his funk soon and go on one of the torrid stretches in which the big first baseman looks like one of the best power hitters, if not the best power hitter, in baseball. It’s what he has done many times, including last season.

“He hit a couple of balls pretty good the other day (Sunday at Dodger Stadium),” Snitker said before the Braves’ 5-0 win Wednesday night against the Boston Red Sox, which featured back-to-back homers from Marcell Ozuna (with two on) and Orlando Arcia in a four-run first inning. “I kind of feel like he’s just a click away from getting it going.”

Those four early runs were more than enough offensive support for Chris Sale on a night when the veteran left-hander was terrific again. He limited his former Red Sox team to six hits and one walk in six innings with 10 strikeouts for the first double-digit strikeout game of his season and 82nd of his illustrious career.

But just in case, Ozuna added a third-inning solo homer, his 12th of the season, moving him ahead of Shohei Ohtani for the MLB lead.

Marcell Ozuna, your 2024 MLB home run leader🫡 pic.twitter.com/VCyBxEmZdb

— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) May 9, 2024

“It’s no secret. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a thousand times until I run out of breath: I love those guys,” Sale said of the Red Sox, with whom he won a World Series in 2018. “But on the flip side of that, we’re men, this is a competitive game, and we have a job to do. I’m very competitive by nature; I know those guys are as well. You give them the head nod the first go-around in the batting order. But we’re here to win, to do the job we’re supposed to do. It’s a business.

“If there’s anything I want to do, I want to prove to these guys (the Braves) … I owe it to Atlanta to be the best that I can be.”

Sale (5-1) lowered his ERA to 2.95, including 1.80 during his four-start winning streak.

“I knew when we got him, he was gonna be good,” Ozuna said of the 35-year-old lefty, whom the Braves got in a Dec. 30 trade for infielder Vaughn Grissom. “He’s one of the best pitchers in MLB.”

Ozuna’s three-run homer in the first inning came with two outs after Austin Riley hustled to avoid grounding into a double play and Olson hit a 41.5 mph single off the end of his bat. Olson will take them any way he can get them right now.

Since May 1, 2023, the only player with as many homers as Ozuna’s 50 is the Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, who also has 50. Olson is right behind them with 49, and the only player with more RBIs than Olson’s 130 in that span is Ozuna (136).

Snitker and teammates haven’t forgotten that it took a while for Olson to find his groove at the plate a year ago.

“He understands the game and knows that it’s coming, and he’s just got to keep grinding it out,” said Riley, who also got off to a sluggish start, batting .213 with no homers and 22 strikeouts in the last 20 games of April before going 7-for-20 with a triple, a homer and four RBIs in the first five in May.

“I’ve learned in this game it takes one thing for it to click,” Riley said. “Then, you just take off. Like I said, it’s coming (for Olson).”

The fact that Riley and reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. struggled throughout April and into May made Olson’s paltry stats more glaring than they might’ve been if those other sluggers in the top half of the lineup were hitting well.

Olson hit .159 with 30 strikeouts in the past 25 games before Wednesday, but hitting coach Kevin Seitzer has seen him hit plenty of balls caught at the warning track and noted Olson’s hard-hit rate (57.6 percent) and average exit velocity (94.8 mph), both among the top five in baseball before Wednesday. He also knows Olson’s expected batting average and slugging percentages are far above his actual numbers. Seitzer is not worried about Olson.

“Matty is outstanding, one of the best hitters that I’ve ever worked with that can go through a hard time, focus on adjustments, make the adjustments, take it into a game and stay mentally even-keel to where he’s not pressing and freaking out, like hitters sometimes can,” Seitzer said. “Guys will tend to press when they’re going through a rough time, but our guys don’t panic.

“I told Ronnie if he starts off normal and (struggled) in July, nobody would be talking about it. But he got off slow, and nobody likes to see numbers down, power down, the whole thing.”

Added Seitzer: “I don’t know. There were some balls that I thought should have been homers and extra-base hits that are getting caught so far this season. You can blame the weather all you want, but I’m not buying that one. The ball (Olson) smoked in Seattle was 108 or 109 the other way, and it’s like it didn’t even get to the warning track.”

While waiting for Olson to heat up, Snitker and the Braves say they aren’t worried about his confidence. The Atlanta-area native and former Parkview High star has the same pleasant disposition, whether breaking records like he did last season — Olson also set a franchise record with a majors-leading 139 RBIs — or batting under the Mendoza Line (.200), as he’d done for four games before Wednesday.

“I think that allows him to come out of things like (this slump),” Snitker said. “I see a lot of that in Austin also. I know I talk to Matt and ask, ‘Do you want a day (off)?’ And that’s not even on the table. You see him, and he’s the same guy every day. He does his work, great teammate, and expects to do well. That allows guys like that to go through rough spots in this game and come out on the good end.”

Riley agreed and said: “I think that’s why (Olson) is who he is and the great player that he is. This game will humble you quick and reward you quick. It’s the ebbs and flows in the game, and he understands that, and I feel like he knows that his time’s coming. He’s super laid-back, super chill, and I think that’s what makes him special.”

Matt Olson on his slump & no homers since April 7: “It’s hard. This game will always find a way to humble you. What’s happened has happened, can’t do anything about it now. Just put your head down and try to get back on the right track, and realize there’s a lot of season left.”

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) May 6, 2024

Snitker was right — Olson has zero interest in taking a mental break with a day out of the lineup. He last missed a game May 2, 2021, and has played 492 in a row, the longest active streak in the majors. Snitker also doesn’t believe it’s time to move him from the cleanup spot to ease pressure, at least not yet.

With runners in scoring position, Olson is batting just .175 with 18 strikeouts in 45 plate appearances and has a .520 OPS, the 19th lowest among NL qualifiers. A year ago, he hit .322 with a .705 slugging percentage and 1.155 OPS in 191 plate appearances with RISP, the second-best slugging and OPS in the majors in those situations.

“It hasn’t come to that yet,” Snitker said of moving Olson in the lineup. “If it does, I’ll talk to him and see. Most of the time it’s probably dumb luck when it works, if you want to get right down to it. Because they’re going to come up with guys on, and they’re going to come up in the same situation no matter where they’re hitting. But it’s always an option.”

It’s easy to forget the criticism directed at Olson early in 2022, after being traded to the Braves to replace Freddie Freeman and signing an eight-year, $168 million contract. He hit .244 with five homers and 16 RBIs through 44 games, and plenty of observers said he didn’t have Freeman’s power or penchant for clutch hits.

More people began to appreciate Olson when he had 29 homers and 87 RBIs in the remaining 118 games.

Last season, Olson had nine homers in the first 32 games, but his average dipped to .227 with an .833 OPS after 67 games. Then he broke out in a major way, sizzling with a .323 average, 36 homers, 94 RBIs and a 1.108 OPS in the final 95 games.

“For me, he’s going through what he went through last year,” Seitzer said. “I mean, he had an immense amount of swing-and-miss in (the strike) zone last year — way more. And I was talking to Adam (Sonabend, the Braves’ director of operations), who does our numbers crunching, and he said it wasn’t until June until he really took off last year.”

So, they will wait for Olson. When he starts mashing, they know what he does for their offense.

(Top photo of Matt Olson: Kevin D. Liles / Atlanta Braves / Getty Images)

David O'Brien is a senior writer covering the Atlanta Braves for The Athletic. He previously covered the Braves for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and covered the Marlins for eight seasons, including the 1997 World Series championship. He is a two-time winner of the NSMA Georgia Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow David on Twitter @DOBrienATL