Braves Today

Spencer Strider: "No acceptance of anything less than winning a World Series"

MLB's strikeouts leader had some very direct comments on expectations for the Atlanta Braves

Lindsay Crosby

The Atlanta Braves held their annual BravesFest on Saturday, and the massive fan turnout despite the rain proved that there's not fairweather fans in this fanbase. 

And some of the player comments proved that there's a corresponding urge to improve on the team's two consecutive NLDS eliminations. 

Spencer Strider, talking to the media on Saturday, had perhaps the most succinct and direct comment on the team's feelings about that playoff elimination and their corresponding expectations for the 2024 season: 

"I think that there should be no acceptance of anything less than winning a World Series in this organization. I said it a little bit ago, and I believe it [...] This is the most talented team in baseball. We need to set our bar as high as possible, and anything less than that (winning the World Series) is an underachievement for us." 

And Strider's assertion that it's the most talented team in baseball seems to hold weight - Atlanta tied the MLB record for homers in a regular season, finishing with 307 to equal the 2021 Twins, who had the advantage of "juiced" baseballs that inflated homer totals across the league. 

The Braves offense was particularly dominant in the first inning, scoring 146 runs in the first frame, a mark that was one run off of the MLB record in the Expansion Era, belonging to the 2000 Cardinals. Atlanta scored a first inning run 65 times, while eclipsing the four run mark fourteen times (second in baseball history to the 1950 Boston Red Sox, who did it sixteen times).

And that first inning dominance was fueled by the dynamic Ronald Acuña Jr, who won the National League MVP award on the strength of baseball's fifth ever 40/40 season. Ronald finished with an absurd 41 homers and 73 steals, obliterating Alex Rodriguez's record for steals in a 40/40 campaign (46). 

Cleanup hitter Matt Olson set the team's single season record for homers in a season, launching 54 longballs, and his first inning slugging percentage of .686 is the 2nd highest in team history (Andres Galarraga put up a .687 in 1998). 

The trio of Acuña, Olson, and the perpetually underrated Austin Riley were the first trio of teammates to put up a OPS over 1.0000 in the first inning in the Expansion Era. 

But despite that high performing offense, the Braves were eliminated in the NLDS for a 2nd straight year by the Philadelphia Phillies, going 1-3 while scoring only eight runs. That was the team's lowest run output in any four game stretch of 2023, exacerbated by Atlanta's futility at hitting for extra bases (only four in the series, with two of them being homers by Riley.)

Given the dynamics of the last two postseason eliminations - an offensive drought in 2023 and a pitching collapse in 2022, partially caused by injuries, illness, and rust amongst the rotation - the Braves haven't made drastic changes to the roster, opting to improve on the margins. 

For the 2024 season, the team has moved on from free agent outfielder Eddie Rosario and instead traded for former top prospect Jarred Kelenic, who underperformed for the Seattle Mariners and expressed excitement about how his offense will play in Atlanta's Truist Park. 

(In Kelenic's three games in Truist Park last season, he went 4-12 with a homer, four runs scored, and a walk while spending one game in each of the three outfield positions.)

The team also upgraded their pitching, traded for Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale and fortifying the bullpen with flamethrowers Reynaldo López,  

Winning the World Series in baseball remains the hardest championship to capture of the four major sports, owing to the lack of meaningful home-field advantage in either the regular season or postseason - last season, home teams had a .521 winning percentage in the regular season and a .366 in the postseason. In the last five postseasons (not counting 2020's neutral site format), game sevens have been won by the road trip ten times in sixteen chances. Last year's champion, the Texas Rangers, went 11-0 on the road in October but went only 2-4 at home, while the opposing Arizona Diamondbacks went 3-4 at home but 7-4 on the road. 

There's belief across baseball that having one of the two highest seeds in the expanded postseason format is more of a detriment than a curse, owing to the five day layoff that occurs during the Wild Card round. The teams with the five best records in the regular season went a combined 1-13 in last year's postseason, with Atlanta's home win in game two the only victory for that group. 

But nevertheless, Atlanta's going to figure it out. They have to. It's too good of a roster to accept anything less. 

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Lindsay Crosby
LINDSAY CROSBY

Managing Editor for Braves Today and the 2023 IBWAA Prospects/Minors Writer of the Year. You can reach him at contact@bravestoday.com

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