Home runs have always been the great equalizer — the swing that can erase a deficit, ignite a crowd, or flip a scoreboard in an instant. But for the 2025 Atlanta Braves, those swings have become more of a flicker than a flame.
Through 91 games, Atlanta has slugged 98 home runs — below the MLB average of 104 — ranking 17th in the league. Respectable? Maybe. But compared to where this team stood just two seasons ago, it’s a seismic drop.
In 2023, the Braves didn’t just lead the league in home runs. They obliterated it, launching 307 bombs, 58 more than the next-best team (the Dodgers) and 85 more than any other NL contender. That team won 104 games and had thunder up and down the lineup. Fast forward to 2025, and the thunder sounds more like a whisper.
Wednesday’s Five-Homer Burst — A Rare Sight in 2025
Against the Oakland A’s on Wednesday night, Atlanta finally flexed a little, hitting five home runs in a game, for the first time all season. The last time they hit five in one game? September 19, 2024, against Cincinnati.
Compare that to 2023, when they had ten five-homer games, and the narrative shifts from patience to panic.
Where Has the Power Gone?
Sean Murphy has been a bright spot, on pace to surpass his 2023 total of 21 homers with 13 already this season. Rookie Drake Baldwin adds some juice with 11 of his own.
But across the rest of the lineup, the power fade is impossible to ignore:
- Austin Riley: From 37 HRs in 2023 to just 14 so far.
- Ozzie Albies: From 33 bombs to a mere 6.
- Michael Harris II: From 18 in 2023 to 6 this season.
- Marcell Ozuna: From a 40-HR campaign to just 11.
- Matt Olson: Still strong, but not on pace for another 54-HR season like he had in 2023.
- Left Field: Eddie Rosario’s 21 HRs in 2023 are now replaced by a platoon combining for just 6.
And of course, Ronald Acuña Jr., 2023 NL MVP, had been sidelined for two months — a massive void that no stat sheet can truly quantify.
Regression Across the Board
The story here isn’t just one or two slumps. It’s regression layered on regression (stats per Baseball Reference):
- Natural regression (Olson’s career year in 2023 was always going to be hard to repeat)
- Injury regression (Acuña, Ozuna)
- Age regression (Rosario)
- Unexpected regression (Riley, Albies, Harris)
It’s a recipe for offensive inconsistency — and when the Braves aren’t homering, they’re not scoring. The offense has struggled to manufacture runs in other ways, making power slumps feel like full-on droughts.
The Braves Fallout in the Standings
This power outage is more than cosmetic — it’s hurting the Braves where it matters most: in the win column. Unlike 2023, when big innings felt inevitable, 2025 has been a year of waiting and watching for a home run that sometimes never comes.
The Braves don’t need to lead the league in homers again. But unless the long ball returns in some consistent form — or the team finds new ways to score — Atlanta risks letting a season with so much potential slip quietly into disappointment.
