Time for the Atlanta Braves to Show Some Urgency

Even the most level-headed Atlanta Braves fan has to realize that if this team doesn’t do something quick the season will get away from them. 

For a while now we’ve been able to use the excuse that the Atlanta Braves have plenty of time left to work out all their issues.

Well, that time has run out in my book.

We’re past the 60 game mark, which is typically a good indicator of where a team is and how they’re going to perform.

The Braves are a season-low five games under .500 at 30-35 and 7.5 games back of the NL East leaders in the New York Mets. They’re also 6.5 games out of a Wild Card spot.

You can look back to the 2019 season and use the Washington Nationals as hope. They were also five games under .500 on June 17 but were 9 games behind the Braves in the division. And they were six games back of a wild card spot, which they ended up getting before going on to win the World Series.

The Nationals went on to win 93 games that year, going 60-31 from June 17 on.

Forgive me, but I don’t see this Braves team having that kind of stretch in them based on what I’ve seen. But you probably could have said the same about that Nationals team on June 17, 2019.

Still, the fact remains that there has to be more urgency from this team and from the front office if they are to have some kind of turnaround like Washington had in 2019.

The losses to Boston at home were brutal and could either deflate a deflated team even more, or wake them up and realize if they don’t turn it around now they’re going to waste this season.

Of course, they’ve had many other games like what happened on Tuesday and Wednesday and still haven’t woken up, so what’s to say this won’t be any different.

The bullpen is clearly a mess and has been all year. Alex Anthopoulos has tried to piece it together and brought in Shane Greene to help, but that hasn’t worked out so far.

It’s time for a complete overhaul, similar to what he did in 2019 when he traded for Greene, Mark Melancon, and Chris Martin.

I understand it’s hard to make those deals now, but the Braves can’t afford to wait until the end of July — their season is on the line right now.

Go to Kansas City and see what they want for Scott Barlow. Maybe the Twins are ready to pack it in and are willing to move Taylor Rogers.

Tanner Scott for Baltimore has been really good. Caleb Smith has adjusted nicely to a reliever role with the Diamondbacks.

There are players out there that you wouldn’t have to trade the farm for who could have an impact. At this point, the bullpen just needs fresh faces to get the stink off of them.

If this team doesn’t make some big changes and get on a roll before the All-Star break, I’m afraid we could become sellers at the deadline and waste another opportunity with this great, young core of talent.