Bench ‘Em Or Play ‘Em? How Can Managers End Player Slumps?

By Dan Schlossberg

All teams slump. It happens to the best of them.

The Atlanta Braves seldom slumped last season, when they led the majors with 104 wins and tied a major-league record with 307 home runs.

But this year is a different story.

Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Austin Riley wore different numbers when they first came up -- but both have become All-Stars since.Photo byDan Schlossberg collection

The team’s three best hitters — Ronald Acuna, Jr., Austin Riley, and Matt Olson — hit the skids simultaneously, maintaining April Fool’s Day for the entire first month.

Acuna, the unanimous National League MVP in 2023, hit .245 with just six extra-base hits through the end of April (28 games). Riley hit .226 with a half-dozen multi-hit games over the same span.

Those numbers were great compared to Olson’s. The Atlanta cleanup man resorted to cleaning up his own mess: homerless since April 7 — a span of 26 games — he had just four extra-base hits and a .163 batting average (25-for-92) during that timeframe.

Olson, who led the majors last year with 54 home runs and 139 runs batted in, has never suffered through such a drought.

Atlanta manager Brian Snitker, questioned before the game in New York last night, remained steadfast in his conviction that the lineup should never change.

More than any manager in the majors, Snitker sticks with his regulars — even when other pilots might give slumping sluggers a rest or at least shake up the batting order.

The Braves happen to have a former batting champion, Yuli Gurriel, playing first base for their Triple-A team in Gwinnett. But Snitker, asked whether the Braves might promote the Cuban first baseman, deferred the question.

“You’ll have to ask Alex,” he said, leaving the decision to Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos.

It was Anthopoulos who let free agency claim Freddie Freeman, who had spent 12 years with the Braves and was the Face of the Franchise. Olson arrived via trade and quickly signed an eight-year, $168 million extension. It is now in its third year.

Acuna has a long-term deal too. He’s in the sixth season of an eight-year, $100 million extension. And Riley’s 10-year, $212 million deal, now in its second season, is the biggest ever bestowed by the Braves.

With the heart of the lineup not giving heart attacks to opposing pitchers, the Braves suffered through a miserable road trip capped by a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers in Los Angeles. As a result, the Braves were knocked off their first-place perch by the persistent Philadelphia Phillies.

Even former NL Rookie of the Year Michael Harris II was guilty of ineptitude at the plate, with zero hits in 25 at-bats before the Mets series opened Friday night. But he too played without a break.

In fact, only Ozzie Albies and Marcell Ozuna were keeping Atlanta afloat, although Albies had not homered since March 31 in Philadelphia before he hit one of three Atlanta homers (after Acuna but before Olson) against Jose Quintana in the third inning.

Ozuna, one of three Braves with 40 homers last year, was leading the majors with 12 home runs and 38 runs batted in before this weekend.

In the meantime, such bench players as Adam Duvall and Luke Williams aren’t getting enough playing time (Duvall forms a right-left platoon in left field with Jarred Kelenic).

Olson at least is the personification of durability: he has played 493 consecutive regular-season games, the longest active streak in the majors.

Braves fans just wish he would hit — at least a little.

Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron and 40 other baseball books. He writes for forbes.com, Sports Collectors Digest, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Memories & Dreams, MLB Report, and many other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.