Where did the old Ozzie Albies go?

When Ozzie Albies signed his current contract, I condemned the contract in such a term that “condemnation” is an accurate description. The 22-year-old midfielder, who scored a season in one home run and 4.0 wars, has signed his main score for the Brave Year for seven years, with an average of $5 million per person. A two-year choice could allow him to keep him in Atlanta by 2027 without adding contracted AAV. I wrote that this is a scam ever. Esau got a better deal when he sold his inheritance to a bowl of stew.

Six years later, I sit here to consider a question that once seemed to me: Should the brave pick up those choice years?

In his first 83 games, Albies hit .223/.297/.321, which is WRC+ 74. He never hit 0.259 before .259, nor hit 0.450, nor won WRC+ Under 100 in any previous healthy season. There might be some bad hitting luck there, and so far, Atlanta is frustrating, with some discomfort in the injured season.

But Albis’ performance was just under 9 points for Xwoba, and his hard hit percentage was 28.1%, the seventh percentile among major league batsmen. It’s a disturbing number for a player who gets a huge combination from the right combination of contact quality and startup angles: his barrel speed is just 3.4%, a newcomer to the category since the lowest number relative to the league and Albies and Albies. In 2023, Albis had a barrel rate of 8.2%. In 2021, his other 30-season, Albis had a career-high 9.3%.

Albies stripped his powerful bats of power because of their powerful bats, barely taking their heads above the substitute level. But, about the question I asked above the rest – Will the Braves relax him after this season? – That’s one of the inflammatory verbal questions like me that lets you relax to make you read.

Like Albies’ attacks this year, it would be a lifelong shock if Atlanta didn’t choose its own, even if he was in September and his WRC+ was still in the Ford administration. There are two reasons.

First, after everything he did for the brave, he needed a very cruel asshole. Part of the reason I had to do with Albis when I signed on to this extension must have been related to his great potential. The tiny man had played more than 200 games in the Grand Slam before he was 22 years old, not only survived, but also performed well. At that time, it was not unreasonable to expect Albis to become Mookie Betts who hit the roar.

Of course, this didn’t happen, but he played 656 games at 110 WRC+ in the first six seasons of that extension, and even the pandemic and all kinds of injuries, he had a 15.0 war in that time. However, the numbers are not really just about the franchise power. He formed three All-Star teams, won the World Series, and sold God Knows How Much Jets and T-Shits. Don’t generalize a data point, but my mother-in-law is a loyal fan and Albies is her favorite player.

This is not some intermediate relief workers on the tour. This is a living person. There may be cruel enough local offices to give up on Albis after a very bad season, but Alex Anthopoulos and the Braves keep drawing players to sign for a long-term down market extension because it is said to be a good place.

Second, like everything else in Albies’ contract, his first choice year was very cheap: just $7 million. Additionally, although his 2027 team option is not bought out, if the Braves want to cut Albis this offseason, they will have to pay $4 million to get rid of him. Essentially, this makes it a $3 million decision.

For someone entering the 29-year-old season, he is an All-Star, won the MVP vote two years ago, and $3 million is nothing. It’s a sampling of Bills’s big infielders, or a more cleansing than Albies or both, and what they got from the open market last winter, from them (mostly) barely emotionally attached.

Next year, Albies will be worth $3 million. If he gets so bad again in 2026, then we can talk about his 2027 options, but this is another day’s blog post.

The answer to a question that no one asked is “No,” let’s get into the horrible part.

Albis was never a giant bat quick adult. It’s not his fault; he’s small. This seems a bit strange because it feels like a million years ago he is still only 28 years old, but Albis was one of the first players to develop into the airplane revolution after the prospect. Players with good hot tools are taught to try to swing and put the ball in the air, and Albies is great.

Even now, he is at the top quartile of the league with an ideal offensive angle percentage. Of 281 bats, he has at least 100 balls in the 18th out of 281 bats this season.

But he didn’t hit the ball like he used to:

The thing that makes Albies tricky is that almost all other batsmen are actually two batsmen. He is a cyclist with two completely different fluctuations. I actually asked him about this a few years ago, when I was around an article about the decline of the rev. ((sports I posted a similar article at startup, so I’ve never used these quotes.

Albis learned how to switch impacts in minors. He is naturally right-handed (obviously, given where he plays), but there is always a difference when you try to reflect your natural swing. Over the years, he played with different positions and swings. He was very open on both sides, but this quality became even more extreme thanks to his left and right swing. This is something he has been doing in 2025. First, from the left:

Then from the right:

The adjustments he made – starting in 2024, his openness has been reduced – actually helped Albias swing a better swing on the ball. Even though Albies’ bat speed suffered a lot from the left, his losses were reduced from the right, and he has raised the ball more frequently over the past two seasons:

Albies’ performance as a rev batsman is one of my greatest baseball fixtures. I began to realize that a lot of my fixation came from my traumatic arguments about young bloggers in the early 2010s, and that was no different. At that time, Shane Victorino was a rev basketball with two different swings, just like Albies is now. From the left, Victorino’s swing bends. From the right, he looks like Albert Pujols and has no bad results. Victorino’s career WRC+ is 93 hitting left hand, while the career WRC+ has right hand hitting right hand.

This has something to do with Albies, as he is (or at least) the monster that hits left-handed on his left hand: .326/.351/.537, WRC+ is 135. On a right-handed shot with the left hand, he can at best: .245/.309/.428, 95 WRC+.

The problem with Victorino and Victorino at the time was the way that there were more pitchers than right-handed thrown away. Albies has seen nearly three right-handed pitchers every time in his career. For every plate he appears as Manny Machado, he takes 2.8 as Ceddanne Rafaela.

Victorino eventually gave up hit percentage at the end of his career, and as we spoke, I gave this role model to me gently: Will he consider hitting only the right hand?

“We’ve talked about it before, but it’s not what I thought I would do.”

why not?

He said: “Because I’m a turn-around basketball,” and afterward he made a heavy statement that he would rather give up on the subject.

Still, Albias tried to drive to the right at the end of last season. He broke his left wrist in July and was racing back on the court in time to help the Braves make the playoffs. It’s not a big sample – nine games, 33 pa – but it’s not a success either. He reached .226/.273/.452.

This depression quickly turns into a bad season, stopping completely, and is usually a great opportunity to try something new. Reshape yourself. But Albis can no longer rely on crushed left-handed pitching.

He maintained the bat’s speed, he hit the ball in the right position, and the strength had disappeared:

In 90 set appearances on the right this season, Albis had only 3 walks and four additional hits, all doubles, resulting in WRC+ 39.

I don’t know if it’s the source of the bleeding or how to stop it. Albies chased the right from the right any season except for 2022, but his chase rate in 2023 was 43.0%, when he was right at 0.391 and created a career on home runs. His pace is creating a new career for walking rates, but I can’t see them if there are signs of overall passivity. His Seager is below his career average, but he has never been a league leader, and it is no much lower than in 2023.

The decline of Albies is mysterious enough to attract people to find external explanations: changes in baseball, or the lingering effect of a fractured wrist. Albies wouldn’t be the first star player, or even the first very short second baseman of his generation – suddenly and inexplicably lost a season. Jose Altuve was frightening in 2020, the 30-year-old season, and then popped up and became an All-Star team in 2021. He finished fifth in the MVP vote in 2022. Until now, now, in his 35-year-old season, his position changes (in my opinion, an unwise man), he was his good and slowing down.

If Albies line up for a similar rebound, getting $7 million in options would be the smartest decision Anthopoulos has made. However, one of the most reliable skills in baseball has evaporated overnight and I am starting to worry.