MIAMI — Ozzie Albies hasn’t quite gotten back to where he was in 2023, when he and Mookie Betts were MLB’s only second basemen with a .500 slugging percentage. But the Braves’ second baseman is showing that when healthy, he might be capable of becoming that guy again.
Albies homered for the third time in less than 24 hours and tallied five RBIs in a 12-1 Braves win over the Marlins on Wednesday afternoon at loanDepot park. The increased power he has shown since the All-Star break indicates he might be getting stronger as he distances himself from the left wrist fracture he suffered after the 2024 All-Star break.
“He’s a really good player,” Braves outfielder Jurickson Profar said. “He had a tough season in the beginning. But that’s what I like about this team. Even though the chances are slim for us to make the playoffs, everybody comes in here every day ready to win and with high energy.”
This certainly hasn’t been a team that has moped about the reality they likely won’t make the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
The Braves have tallied a double-digit run total in five of their past 14 games, including both of their past two. They did so just six times over the 119 games that preceded this stretch. Their much improved offensive production has been fueled by the second-half turnarounds constructed by Albies and Michael Harris II, who accounted for one of Atlanta’s five home runs in this series finale.
It also doesn’t hurt that Profar, who was levied an 80-game PED suspension four games into the season, has MLB’s 14th-best OPS (.920) since the break. This statistic was strengthened by him tallying his second multi-homer game within the past two weeks on Wednesday.
“He said, ‘I’m going to do anything in my power to help the team win,’ and he’s showing it,” Albies said.
Sitting 11 games under .500 (61-72) with 30 games to go, the Braves can think “what if” regarding a number of different things, including, what if Profar had been around for the first half? This latest victory also created reason to wonder how different things might be had Albies not produced a .606 OPS before the All-Star break.
As Albies has constructed a .762 OPS since the break, he has seemingly erased any thoughts about the Braves possibly not exercising his $7 million option for the 2026 season.
“Oz had had his struggles throughout most of the summer,” Snitker said. “But you’d never know it. He just keeps a great attitude about it and confidence in himself. Hopefully he can keep it up and finish on a really good note.”
Profar now has a team-best 12 home runs going back to July 2, the day he was reinstated from his suspension. Harris ranks second during this span with 11, including the opposite-field shot he hit off former Braves Minor Leaguer Freddy Tarnok in Wednesday’s sixth inning.
As for Albies, he capped an exciting five-run third when he dinged the right-field foul pole with a three-run homer off Marlins starter Ryan Gusto. His exaggerated bat flip was in response to his teammate Ronald Acuña Jr. getting plunked by Gusto earlier in the inning. It was the ninth time a Marlins pitcher has hit Acuña, but just the third time since 2021.
Albies began Tuesday’s two-homer performance, his first since July 4, 2023, by sending Sandy Alcantara’s 99 mph fastball into right field’s second deck. The switch-hitter later hit his first right-handed homer of the season.
Throughout the season, Albies has refused to use last year’s wrist fracture as an excuse. But as his power has returned over the past few weeks, there’s reason to think the ailment hampered him into this season.
“Definitely, things are turning around,” Albies said. “I kept playing hard no matter what. It’s just when things are going great, it obviously feels a lot better.”
