The Braves Picked Up the Easy Options. The Shortstop Problem Won't Be Nearly So Simple.

The Braves' only two option decisions of the winter were resolved with about as little suspense as the industry expected: Atlanta exercised its club options on Ronald Acuña Jr. ($17MM) and Ozzie Albies ($7MM), keeping the two longest-tenured position players in the fold for 2027. The team had no real incentive to walk away from either at those prices, and there was no drama in the announcements.

That was the easy part. The harder part is everything around them.

The core is intact, but the core has cracks

Keeping Acuña and Albies is about continuity and price certainty, not necessarily about getting two stars at peak value. Acuña's recent seasons have been defined by lower-body injury interruptions — hamstring strains and knee issues have repeatedly forced the Braves to manage his workload carefully, and the club has been notably conservative bringing him back from IL stints. Albies, meanwhile, was durable in 2026 — 162 games — but posted a .237/.293/.392 line with a .685 OPS, 22 homers and 73 RBI at second base. That's a below-average offensive season at a position where Atlanta once got star-level production.

Locking in both was still the right call given the alternatives. But it means the Braves are paying for continuity on a roster whose offensive ceiling may be capped. The 2026 club hit .246/.311/.409 with 202 home runs and 719 runs scored — respectable, not fearsome. Matt Olson (.251/.321/.502, 41 homers, 93 RBI, and a fourth career Gold Glove) was the engine. Drake Baldwin (.284/.358/.459, 25 homers, .817 OPS) was the best-kept secret. Beyond that, the lineup was more workmanlike than overwhelming.

The real story: the left side of the infield is empty

MLB Trade Rumors put it bluntly in its offseason outlook: Atlanta has "the most glaring shortstop need in MLB." Both Mauricio Dubón and Ha-Seong Kim are free agents, leaving Jim Jarvis as the top in-house option — a projection, not a plan.

Dubón's case is the interesting one. He's coming off a season in which he played 153 games, hit .276 with a .720 OPS, and won his third career Gold Glove — his second straight, alongside Olson. He's the kind of player contending teams talk themselves out of paying and then spend three years trying to replace. The Braves' decision to bring Vidal Bruján back on a minor league deal has the look of hedging against exactly that scenario. The ideal outcome is a short, team-friendly deal that keeps Dubón in a super-utility role; the realistic outcome is a multiyear market for one of the more versatile defenders in the league.

Tyler Mahle is the other name in Atlanta's exclusive five-day negotiating window. A 3.99 ERA over 27 starts and 149 innings is not glamorous, but in a rotation that already leans heavily on its depth, replacing that volume gets expensive fast.

Why this matters for 2027

The Braves' pitching carried them. Atlanta ranked sixth in baseball with a 3.58 team ERA, and its bullpen was a genuine weapon at a 2.71 ERA. That's the reason a 76-86 team in 2025 became a 94-68 NL East champion that beat the Phillies in the Wild Card round before falling to the Dodgers in the NLDS.

But relief pitching is volatile, and Spencer Strider — already on the 60-day IL, with a 4.45 ERA across 23 starts in 2025 — is a reminder of how quickly rotation certainty evaporates. If the middle infield defense regresses and the lineup stays league-average, the pitching staff loses its margin for error. Atlanta went 11-5 against Philadelphia in 2026, outscoring the Phillies 80-52; that head-to-head edge is not a birthright.

One encouraging note: the front office is strengthening itself. Dana Brown returned to the organization as a senior advisor in amateur scouting after Houston replaced him with Randy Flores — a hire that speaks to Alex Anthopoulos reinforcing the pipeline rather than patching at the margins. The Mitchell Parker waiver claim from Washington is a similar depth play, even if the lefty isn't expected to contribute right away.

The option decisions were the easy part. How Atlanta fills shortstop and the back of the rotation will determine whether 94 wins was a floor or a peak.