Executives and scouts not high on the Braves chances come the playoffs

The Braves have been among the best teams in baseball since the start of the season, even if they’re likely to finish with the third-best record in the National League. However, when it comes to playoff darlings, the people inside the business are not liking Atlanta’s chances come October.

ESPN recently polled 16 executives and scouts about a number of topics regarding the postseason, including the National League’s team to beat, with the Braves not receiving a single vote. Now, given how strong the NL is, that’s not totally surprising, but it is when considering the Brewers led the way with six votes, the Phillies also received four, and even the Cubs got a vote. It wasn’t all Dodgers, who received the second-most votes behind Milwaukee.

The Braves did receive a couple of votes for “sleeper team” in the National League, but even in that area they were outpaced by the Padres by five votes, with the Cubs also receiving two more votes.

If you went solely by this article, it’d almost be hard to tell that the Braves are even set to compete in the playoffs. They were barely mentioned, but are the executives and scouts included in this poll all that wrong?

October is often defined by pitching and timely hitting. This is a group that’s battle-tested, but it’s not as if they’ve performed their best when the lights have shined on them. The Braves haven’t won a playoff series since 2021 despite making it three times, and nobody is going to buy into this pitching staff on paper. Tyler Mahle, Martin Perez, and Grant Holmes have all been unbelievable for Atlanta this season, but the outside world is right to question whether that can continue against the best offenses in the playoffs.

Perhaps the best case for the Braves to surprise people next month is that baseball is an unpredictable, weird sport, and postseason heroes often come from unsuspecting places. Nothing exemplifies that better than Atlanta’s run back in 2021. That was arguably the worst playoff roster the Braves have had since 2018, yet that happened to be the team that climbed to the top of the mountain, thanks to unforgettable performances from Eddie Rosario, Jorge Soler, Tyler Matzek, and Ian Anderson.

None of those players have been relevant in the league since, but for one month five years ago you would have thought they were destined for the Hall of Fame. The Braves have enough talent to beat anybody. They’ve held up well against the best teams in the National League all season, and you don’t win 90+ games without some special players. But the doubt from the outside world is understandable and, dare I say, warranted given how inconsistently this team has performed over the past four months.

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(Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)