Atlanta Braves Superlatives After the First Quarter of the 2023 season

Who is the MVP (and LVP) at the quarter mark of the season?

Lindsay Crosby | May 16, 2023

The Atlanta Braves have officially finished one-fourth of the 2023 season - technically, 25.3% - and so we can start to go ahead and give out early-season superlative awards.

(Just pointing out that this isn't the "quarter-pole" of the season, as some folks will say or write in the coming days. The quarter-pole, which comes from horse racing, is meant to signify the last quarter-mile of the race. Horse races all start at different points on the track, but they all finish at the same place and therefore use distances measured from the end of the race, not the beginning.)

Anyway, let's get to the selections:

Most Valuable Player: Ronald Acuña Jr

This will come as a surprise to no one, but it's Ronald Acuña Jr. The outfielder is leading all of baseball (entering Tuesday) with 2.8 WAR, 37 runs scored, and 94 total bases, 2nd with a .436 on-base percentage (.437 for Miami's Luis Arraez), 55 hits (56 for Toronto's Bo Bichette), and 5 outfield assists (tied with Texas OF Adolis García and Philadelphia's Nick Castellanos).

Acuña, who has led off and played right field for every game this season, has been the spark that makes the Braves offensive engine run, with his seventeen stolen bases good for 2nd in all of baseball (behind Oakland's Esteury Ruiz, with 19) and first in the National League. With Ronald Acuña Jr is in the lineup and hitting, the Braves always have a chance to win that series, game, or at-bat.

HM: C Sean Murphy, P Spencer Strider

Least Valuable Player: Marcell Ozuna

Despite his recent hot streak in the month of May (12-40, 6 HRs), Ozuna is still batting just .172/.274/.434 with eight homeruns and 14 RBIs on the 2023 season. He dug himself quite the hole to begin the year, finishing the month of May with an .085/.194/.203 slash line with two homeruns in his first eighteen games. Despite Atlanta's missed time in the outfield thanks to the IL stint of Michael Harris and the scares with Ronald Acuña Jr, the team hasn't felt comfortable playing him more than twice in left field all season.

On top of all of that, he's still owed $32M over the next two seasons. The Braves biggest hope is that either this May hot streak is signs that he's closer to his 2020 Silver Slugger form, or it's at least enough that you can dump him at the trade deadline without having to pay the rest of his contract.

HM: AJ Minter

Cy Young: Spencer Strider

With the injuries to Max Fried and Kyle Wright, Spencer Strider has stepped up to become the ace of the staff. He's put up a 4-1 record and a 2.51 ERA in his eight starts on the season, and has logged at least eight strikeouts in every single start of the season. He took a no hitter into the 8th inning against Miami (broken up - and bat flipped - by Jean Segura via slap single), and his 15.2 strikeouts per nine innings leads not only all qualified starters, but all qualified pitchers in baseball.

Despite only throwing two pitches, a powerful fastball and a nasty slider, Strider has confounded hitters all season and is leading all of baseball with 79 strikeouts despite being one start behind most of the league leaders in starts.

HM: Bryce Elder, Jesse Chavez

Cy Yuck: AJ Minter

Atlanta's lefty set-up man, pressed into closing duty with the early injured list stint of Raisel Iglesias, has uncharacteristically struggled. Despite having remarkably similar metrics to previous seasons, Minter's getting hit - hard. He's allowed twenty-two hits and seventeen runs in nineteen innings on the season, whereas he allowed sixteen runs in all of 2021 (in seventy innings). He's taken five losses already, with an additional blown save in a matchup against Cincinnati that Atlanta came back to walk off in the 9th.

Some of it may be because of usage: His 20 appearances leads all of baseball, and manager Brian Snitker definitely rode Minter hard during the early part of the season. Now that Raisel Iglesias, Collin McHugh, and Lucas Luetge are all of the IL, hopefully Snit can ease off of Minter and let him figure out what's different in 2023 that's not quite working.

HM: Lucas Lutege, Jared Shuster

Best Newcomer: Sean Murphy

Atlanta swung another big trade with the Oakland Athletics, sending All-Star catcher/DH William Contreras and multiple prospects, including top arm Kyle Muller, to the A's (or for Contreras, to the Milwaukee Brewers) for Murphy. Promptly signing him to a six year, $73M contract extension, as Alex Anthopoulous does, Murphy made AA look like the best general manager in the world by absoluting EXPLODING with the bat.

After Travis d'Arnaud had to leave an early-April start versus the Padres with a concussion, ultimately spending almost a month on the IL, Murphy went on an absolute tear. While d'Arnaud was out, Murphy hit .302/.429/.698 with nine home runs and a team-best 1.127 OPS while starting a majority of games behind the plate - he took only three games off and DH'd three other times.

He's also provided exceptional defense - Murphy is a top five catcher in just about every possible defensive metric, from framing to blocking to pop time.

HM: Kevin Pillar, Nick Anderson

Most Disappointing Regular: Austin Riley

It's, unfortunately, Austin Riley. The Braves third baseman has struggled to get going at the plate this season, with a season slashline of .247/.333/.396 and only six homeruns on the season. Struggling to find his power stroke, the slugger is sitting 102 points below his career slugging percentage and, despite playing everyday and hitting 3rd in the lineup for most of this season, has only collected 18 RBIs on the season even though on-base machine Ronald Acuña Jr in two spots in front of him in the lineup.

The issues seem to be related to fastballs, as Riley, who normally crushes four-seamers, is batting only .139 against them in 2023.

The Braves have dropped him back from the three-hole to cleanup in the last few games, with Ozzie Albies replacing him. He's had better at-bats in the last few days, and hopefully it's what gets his bat going for the rest of the season.

HM: Marcell Ozuna, Eddie Rosario

Biggest Surprise: Bryce Elder

The 2020 5th round pick out of Texas was competing for the 5th rotation spot in spring training, but quickly found himself on the outside looking in as the competition narrowed to Dylan Dodd and Jared Shuster and Elder was optioned along with Ian Anderson to AAA Gwinnett.

But, injuries forced the Braves to alter the plan - Max Fried strained his hamstring on Opening Day and Elder was subsequently called up to make a spot start against the St. Louis Cardinals.

He never went back down.

For the season, Elder is 3-0 with a 1.94 ERA in his eight starts on the season. Is he having a Kyle Wright-type breakout in his 2nd year in the bigs? Only time will tell, but with their current rotation injuries, Atlanta sure would be happy if he was.

HM: Orlando Arcia

The "Miss 'Ya, Buddy" Award: Kenley Jansen

With the caveat that Atlanta would have needed to go into the luxury tax to match Boston's 2-year, $32M deal, the Braves sure could have used the stabilizing presence of veteran closer Kenley Jansen as they suffered injuries up and down the pitching staff in the first quarter of the season. With AJ Minter struggling, notching five losses and a blown save while closer Raisel Iglesias was rehabbing on the IL, Jansen's trademark cutter and renewed velocity would have been a stabilizing presence in the "armbarn" for Atlanta while the relievers worked their way back to health.

HM: Adam Duvall, Dansby Swanson

Have any thoughts about our selections? Hop onto our social channels (links below) and let us know!

Check out Braves Today on Socials!
Follow Braves Today on Twitter!
Like Braves Today on Facebook!
Check out the homepage for more Atlanta Braves News!
Subscribe to Braves Today on YouTube!
Get Exclusive Braves Merchandise from FOCO

Published May 16, 2023