What’s the most concerning aspect about the Braves right now?

After being swept for just the second time all season, the Braves have now lost eight of their last twelve, watching their lead in the NL East shrink from 9.5 games to 4.5 in the span of a week.

Nothing is guaranteed anymore, especially for a team showing off a ton of flaws with a schedule as difficult as anybody’s down the stretch — featuring meetings with the Phillies, Dodgers, Brewers, Cubs, Astros, and Rays.

A Regressing Bullpen

From the start of the season, the Braves bullpen was the one area they could rely on every night. It’s still the strongest aspect of the team, but some chinks in the armor are beginning to reveal themselves.

Dylan Lee has posted a 4.00 ERA over the last month. Raisel Iglesias has a 4.80 ERA dating back to May 26th. Didier Fuentes is inexperienced and pitching in a completely new role. And there have to be some pretty major concerns surrounding Robert Suarez — even if he’s still expected to return this season, he’ll have missed close to three months. There’s no telling what he’ll realistically provide, which forces the Braves to figure things out on the fly.

It’s still the least of Atlanta’s concerns, but the fact that Alex Anthopoulos didn’t add a reliever better than Brent Suter at the trade deadline is an abomination, especially considering the problems the club faces with the rotation.

A Slumping Lineup

If I had told you following the trade deadline that the Braves would go on to lose eight of twelve in the middle of August, you probably would have cursed out the pitching staff. Instead, the rotation and bullpen have been more than adequate over this stretch. It’s the offense costing them games.

The Braves are averaging a hair over three runs per game over the last two weeks, and the lineup is being shuffled daily in an attempt to find the right combination. It’s still not the club’s most glaring weakness, but again, this is an area that deserved more attention at the deadline.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. All the focus was on Anthopoulos adding starting pitching, but if he didn’t like any of the options, he needed to add to his team’s strengths. One more bat would alleviate a lot of the concerns with this group — though at the end of the day, guys like Acuña, Riley, and Albies simply have to be better more consistently. If that doesn’t happen, the Braves never had much of a chance of going very far in October anyway.

A Confusing Rotation

I call the rotation confusing because on paper, this is by far the weakest link on the roster. And yet they don’t seem to be having many issues.

Bryce Elder and Martin Pérez have been mostly brilliant. Tyler Mahle has been the best addition of the entire trade deadline thus far, pitching to a 1.45 ERA over three starts. AJ Smith-Shawver looked really good in his first start back. And then of course there’s Chris Sale, who’s in the conversation for the best pitcher in baseball.

The performances of Mahle and Smith-Shawver in particular should inspire some confidence heading into the most important stretch of the season. That said, everybody should still be questioning whether the Braves’ starting pitching can hold up against the best competition. It just feels like this group is built to collapse at some point. It’s a matter of when.

—

Photo: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire