Braves briefing: Catching up on Jarred Kelenic's catch, a mock draft and Ronald Acuña pickoffs (2024)

Matt Olson and Ronald Acuña are off to lousy starts but the Braves are 26-14 anyway. Let’s explore how they’re pulling it off in this Braves briefing, where The Athletic’snational reporters and columnists weigh in on Atlanta’s path ahead.

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Power rankings: Atlanta Braves are No. 2

In this week’s Power Rankings, we went with our “what a difference a year makes” theme, sneaking a look at the Power Rankings at this point last season to see how far — in either direction — each team has gone.

Previous ranking: 2

This time last year:25-12, ranked No. 4

Spend some time on the 2024 Baseball-Reference page for Atlanta and just sort of shake your head. Orlando Arcia has the best slugging percentage among the infielders. Marcell Ozunahas more home runs than any two players put together.A.J. Minteris on pace for more than 30 decisions as a one-inning reliever.

And yet, the end result is still awfully good to this point, with the potential to be a whole lot more. The trio of Ronald Acuña Jr.,Ozzie Albiesand Matt Olson had combined for seven home runs all season before they each went deep in the same inning Friday night against Jose Quintana — the starter with the best home-run rate in baseball the past few years. Max Frieddecided to stop allowing hits, or something like that. No one doubts that Atlanta will be fine in the regular season. Now it’s just a matter of getting to October with as much of this roster intact as possible and hoping they canadequately replace Spencer Strider. — Tim Britton

Play of the Week

Jarred Kelenic keeps it in the park

Reply with how many times you replay this clip ⬇️#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/DtlFgG8OXX

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 9, 2024

The best part of this clip is that Kelenic, like everybody else watching, needed an extra beat to believe it himself. Yes, the ball really did wind up in his glove. Yes, he really did snatch away a potential home run from Garrett Cooper. Chris Sale’s reaction is just as entertaining.

Chris Sale's reaction to Kelenic's Catch >>>#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/qgOH7djmdv

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 9, 2024

The latest hits

ICYMI, our national writers weighed in with what they are hearing and seeing

1. Projecting the Braves’ top pick in the 2024 MLB Draft

The first edition of Keith Law’s MLB Mock Draft 2024published this week. Here’s who he has the Braves selecting with the 24th pick in the first round.

William Schmidt 98 MPH ⛽️🔥pic.twitter.com/UoBczxB5Oi

— Prospect Dugout (@prospectdugout) May 12, 2024

William Schmidt, RHP, Catholic HS (Baton Rouge, La.)
Atlantahasn’t been afraid to go into the high school pitching end of the pool, and if they do so again, look for them to take a couple of these players as they did in 2022.

2. Catcher interference calls are skyrocketing

Stealing a strike can come with great peril, as Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras found out last week. He’s among the catchers who moved closer to the plate to frame pitches low in the zone. It helps explain why catcher’s interference was called 94 times in 2023, nearly 20 more times than in 2022.

Katie Woo wrote a story documenting the risk factors for catchers and our David O’Brien provided this insight after speaking with the Braves coaching staff:

TheAtlanta Braveshave two coaches assigned to catching duties.Sal Fasano is the catching coach. He’s assisted by Eddie Pérez, who spent nine of his 11 big-league seasons catching for the Braves. Pérez certainly understands the strategy behind being close to the plate but thinks the responsibility to inform the catcher he’s too close falls on those watching the game from the dugout.

“Sal always reminds them to go back, you don’t want to get hurt,” Pérez added. “From (the dugout) you see better. When you’re catching you don’t know how far you are from the hitter, and every hitter has a different setup, so you have to adjust. …As a catcher, they’ve got to tell you from the side how close you are to the hitter.”

3. We will, we will Roku

Andrew Marchand reported that the new home for “MLB Sunday Leadoff” games will be Roku.

This will impact the Braves for their June 30 game against Pittsburgh and their Aug. 24 game against the Washington Nationals.

Some details from Marchand on the arrangement:

Roku service is free without a subscription. A release from the league and Roku said an estimated 120 million have access to the service, which still might not quell angst when hardcore fans want to find their teams’ games. MLB.TV subscribers will be able to watch all 18 matchups with no blackouts anywhere in the world.

The Athleticreported nearly two weeks ago that the sides werein advanced talks. NBC’s streamer, Peaco*ck, had formerly been the home of the package, which the platform created with baseball. NBC liked its two-year relationship but only wanted to pay around $10 million per year compared to the previous $30 million per season. What Roku is paying is not yet known, but it is a multiyear agreement.

Roku will also offer a newMLBZone designed to help fans find their teams’ games using the service daily and a fully programmed MLB FAST channel. A FAST channel is free, ad-supported television.

The Roku concept has more exclusivity than Apple TV+’s current plan to show “Friday Night Baseball.” Like Apple, Roku will be the only place fans can watch the game. However, unlike Apple, the Roku games will be the only games on for an hour-and-a-half or two hours. No other Sunday matchups are allowed to have a first pitch before 1:35 p.m.

Last season, the Peaco*ck package began on April 23. This year, the Roku games are not starting until nearly a month later with the May 19 first game.

Baseball beat

Our beat writer David O’Brien picked out what you need to know

Close but no ‘no-no’

Max Fried and the bullpen carried the Braves to the brink of their first no-hitter since 1994. But J.D. Martinez of the Mets spoiled the bid with a flourish.

J.D. MARTINEZ KILLS THE NO HITTER WITH A TWO-OUT HOMER pic.twitter.com/3wCIj3VQmz

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 11, 2024

For a team with as rich of a pitching pedigree as the Braves have, it’s rather stunning that they’ve not pitched a no-hitter since Kent Mercker threw one against theDodgersin Los Angeles on April 8, 1994.

None of the Big Three — Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz — pitched a no-hitter for Atlanta. The Braves have pitched just three no-hitters since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966.

Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro pitched a no-hitter against theSan Diego Padres in Atlanta on Aug. 5, 1973, and Mercker combined with Mark Wohlers and Alejandro Peña for a no-hitter on Sept. 11, 1991, also against the Padres in Atlanta.

The Zack attack

Unlikely heroes are vital to any good team, and Zack Short ranks way up there on the unlikely-o-meter. Entering play Monday, his .169 career average in parts of four major-league seasons looked decent only compared with the .063 average he had this season in 21 plate appearances with three teams.

So, naturally, he drove in one run and scored the other in the Braves’ 2-0 victory over the Cubs that night.

“It’s great,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He made a nice play going deep (behind) third base, too. That was a good at-bat. He has good at-bats; he extends them, takes walks. That was big, obviously.”

ZACK SHORT sparks the lead ⚡️#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/zhnGAiBKJg

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 14, 2024

Ticked off about pickoffs

Ronald Acuña Jr. was picked off first base by Cubs left-handerShota Imanagaafter leading off the first inning Monday with a walk, remarkably the third time in two nights that he was picked off at first base. It happened both times Acuña reached base Sunday against the Mets at New York, after he singled and walked.

Monday made it three consecutive times he was picked off after reaching base, and anMLB-leading four times this season, all since May 1. That’s astounding for anyone, not to mention for a player who led the majors in stolen bases in 2023 with 73 steals during his National League MVP season.

“What can I say, I was definitely caught by surprise those times I got picked off,” Acuña said through the team interpreter. “There’s no excuse for it. It’s part of the game, but like I said, there’s no excuse, and those are missed opportunities for the team. It’s just something that I’m gonna have to get better at.”

Did you catch this?

We suspect you did catch this because the comments section turned into a saloon-style brawl. The melee came after intrepid reporter Sam Blum asked Chadwick Tromp about his new uniform number.

Here’s from Blum’s dispatch:

While the cheers and jeers have been far from all-consuming, he started to hear a new one this year. Tromp, who is Aruban and says he doesn’t pay attention to American politics, was given jersey No. 45, switching from his old No. 48. Donald Trump, of course, was the 45th president. Now, fans often yell “Tromp 45” in a way they never did for “Tromp 48.”

It wasn’t until Tromp was asked about the number change for this article that he said he even realized why those calls had become different this season.

“They always yell ‘Tromp 45,’ but I never put two and two together,” Tromp said last week. “… I thought it was just, ‘Chadwick Tromp, number 45.’”

Tromp, 29, is in his fifth big league season and has played professionally in the United States since 2013. He’s spent three years in Atlanta after two seasons with theSan Francisco Giants. His time in the majors has been sparing, with only 53 games and 136 plate appearances to his ledger. Tromp was called up on March 30, but will likely be sent back down when catcherSean Murphy(oblique) returns from the injured list in a few weeks.

The question of exactly how he ended up with jersey number 45 remains something of a mystery. Tromp said he asked Braves clubhouse director Calvin Minasian for a number change during the offseason. He wanted No. 14 — he has worn 14 and 60 at points in his career — but that became unavailable whenAdam Duvallre-signed with the Braves. Tromp was given 45, which he didn’t select himself.

Minasian declined to comment when approached about the genesis of the selection, saying it was not a story. A Braves spokesperson also declined to comment.

Rewinding the bases

With a loss Wednesday night, the Braves missed a chance to match the best 20-game start at home in modern-era franchise history (since 1900). The 1953 Milwaukee Braves established the mark by opening 16-4 in 20 games at County Stadium. The key to that staff, of course, was Warren Spahn, who went 23-7 with a 2.10 ERA. The future Hall of Famer was especially tough at home all season, with a 1.94 ERA and 0.954 WHIP.

The 2000 Atlanta club tied the 16-4 mark, at Turner Field.

(Top photo of Ronald Acuña: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)