2026 Atlanta Braves Are NL East Champs

Final WinZone chart for 2026. Click to enlarge.

94–68 is a great season. If you tell any baseball fan that their team is going to win 94 ballgames in the regular season, they will be excited. Lots of wins in a game where everybody loses a third of the time at least. So, why am I not excited?

The 2026 Atlanta Braves are NL East Champions. Before the season started, I asked Jerry if he thought we could win the division with one starting pitcher. I was only half-joking. We did it. With a 37-year-old Sale and great step-up performances from an aging Martín Pérez, a youthful Grant Holmes and the late July trade pick Tyler Mahle who has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since he came over.

But we did it. With injuries and a line-up that only was never better than half hot at any given time. In no small measure, we did it with one of the best bullpens in MLB. We lost some leads this season, but not that many. Still, all this made me more anxious than celebratory. How far can this collection of healthy, injured, hot, cold and occasionally bewildering ballplayers go in October?

Atlanta was the first team in baseball to reach 40 wins, getting there on May 30. Earliest time in Braves history. We were riding a high. Dominating. Those first eight weeks were genuinely great. Then June happened. We went 9–14, and the rest of the season felt like work. From June 1 on we were 54–48. Still a winning record, though some nights I couldn't tell you how. It was actually surprising. Maybe we were lucky.

My Win Zone chart shows the split. Through May we scored four or more runs in 70 percent of our games and went 36–6 when we did. After that the offense reached four runs about as often as an average team. The other column kept us alive. From June on we went 15–31 when we scored three or fewer. Read that like a batting average. A .326 hitter in the games you're supposed to lose. At the end of August nobody in baseball did it better. Then September came, and we went 2–8 in those games.

Sale went 14–9 with a 2.16 ERA and 200 strikeouts. Pérez made 26 starts with a 3.04 ERA before he got hurt and is apparently out until we make the NLCS. So that’s become my mantra. Oh god, let me see Martín Pérez pitch again in 2026! Grant Holmes made 29 starts and won ten. Then Mahle showed up and gave us nine starts with a 1.99 ERA. Manager Walt Weiss kept finding enough pitching to get through the next week. Then the next. He really deserves Manager of the Year for that but he is not considered the front-runner for that.

Unlike the rest of the team, the bullpen remained consistent for Weiss all season. Fourth in the majors with a 3.44 ERA, and opponents hit .225 against it. Raisel Iglesias saved 34 games. Rookie Didier Fuentes struck out 92 in 73⅓ innings. Dylan Lee pitched in 71 games. Dylan Dodd allowed 31 hits in 49⅔ innings with a 2.54 ERA and looked dominant on the mound. Robert Suárez was nearly untouchable until an injury cost him three months. He has yet to prove he can match his former self.

Ha-Seong Kim came with a $20 million contract, got injured and rarely contributed anything, hitting .116 with no home runs. Austin Riley played 159 games, hit .219 and struck out 201 times. He’s supposed to be a major contributor. He has a history of contributing but he has been one long pain in my neck all season so far.

Ronald Acuña Jr. played 107 games. Every time he looked ready to take over, something happened. Late in the season he fouled a ball off his shin and knocked himself out of a game. He's back. But he has not hit in the few ABs he got after that injury. I want to see that bat catch fire before anybody calls us hot.

Matt Olson played all 162 games and hit 41 home runs but he has battled batting droughts a couple of times this season. Ozzie Albies played all 162 too. With so many other names changing, there was something reassuring about seeing those two every day. Albies was totally consistent. A rock, really. Fun fact: He set the Braves franchise record for Sac Flies this year. Strange stat but still a cool one to have.

Michael Harris II hit .294 with 26 homers. He has been consistently there for us as well. Drake Baldwin missed time and still hit .284 with 25. Mauricio Dubón hit .276 and played second, third, short, left and center. Five positions, because apparently four weren't enough. We needed him in all those positions covering our injuries and still producing with his bat. He’s probably my pick for MVP of the Braves in 2026.

Mike Yastrzemski found some important swings in September and seemed to want to get hot. Somebody different kept showing up (along with Dubón somewhere usually). Often two or three somebodies in the same game. This season was full of surprises and most of the luck we had was good so far. Injuries be damned.

It became obvious after June that we had a formula for winning. It’s not the prettiest formula but it is what we have. Get a few runners aboard, then hit one out of the park. In Houston on September 18, Harris, Acuña and Olson each hit a two-run homer. Two days later, in the game that clinched the division, Weiss left Yaz in to face a left-hander, and Yaz hit a three-run homer. Another one of those calls that had been going Weiss's way lately. His first season managing the Braves ended with 94 wins and a division title. I don't think that happened by itself. Like I said, he should be Manager of the Year.

After the Houston sweep I told Jerry I wasn't ready to call us hot. He disagreed. We'd won at a .607 pace since the All-Star break, he said. He admitted we were streaky. The bats go hot and cold. Ronald could carry us if one or two other guys showed up. He remembered 2023 too, when we had the best record in baseball and the Phillies sent us home in four games. His conclusion was to enjoy having our team in the postseason. He borrowed Delta's advice. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

I'd like to. The trouble is the ride can be over in two games. We’re facing the Phillies again in 2026. Best of three Wild Card Series starts tomorrow afternoon (when God intended baseball to be played) in Atlanta. It’s the postseason now. You can be gone in a few days whereas getting here was a six-month fight.

Baseball doesn't care that we won 94 times over six months. We went 2–4 against the Reds and Marlins after clinching, with Weiss resting some players and looking at others. My WinZone chart has us 6–6 over the last twelve. Milwaukee, Los Angeles and San Diego are hotter. October series go fast.

I’m still a solid believer in our bullpen. I trust them more than any other part of the team right now. That 2–8 in September says I shouldn't. I do anyway. Dodd and Iglesias look ready. Brent Suter threw 4⅔ scoreless innings after September 15. Victor Mederos threw four, including his escape from a bases-loaded jam in the clincher. There are plenty of other guys, enough good arms to make me hopeful.

At the plate, give me two to four of Harris, Albies, Olson, Baldwin, Dubón, Yaz and Acuña hitting on the same day. Riley could join them. Please, Riley. Hand Sale, Mahle or the bullpen a lead and this team can beat anybody. Wait too long for the right two hitters to show up and there might not be another game in which to try.

So. Seven division titles in nine seasons. Any other baseball organization would take that, easy. Only six teams in baseball won 90 games this year, and we were one of them. I should be laughing. But no. We could screw this up. I can see all the many ways the Phillies beat us or the Dodgers beat us after that. It’s ridiculous. I told Jerry I’ve never been so fretful over so much success.

But, you see, April and May were so easy, so strong, so far past doubting that this was a fluke. Then the rest of the season humbled us. But we fought every challenge. Jerry says they always seem to rise to the occasion when it absolutely has to happen. It’s true. So maybe we’re lucky. Or maybe we really are good when we really have to be. Oh, what a happy thought!

Jerry also says that it is always fun watching your home team play into October. Well, technically we could be eliminated on September 30 (if we lose tomorrow). But I kept that to my cynical anxious self. After two years without a title, with a rotation held together however Weiss could manage it, we won another one. In 2023 I called the NLCS a minimal accomplishment. Sixty years a Braves fan and I'm still hungry. I want the NLCS, at least. I'll probably say I'm satisfied if we get there and then spend months or years complaining if we lose.

Maybe this year the Phillies don’t knock us out.

Go Braves!