The Atlanta Braves have not started the 2025 season as they imagined.
After enduring an 0–4 start to the campaign, they were smacked with more bad news on Monday when left fielder Jurickson Profar was suspended 80 games after a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs. Following that gut punch, they lost again Monday night, running their record to an MLB-worst 0–5.
Profar was the team’s big free-agent pickup this offseason, signing a three-year, $42 million deal in January. Now he’s on the shelf until late June and will be ineligible for the postseason. He joins a long list of key players who are currently unavailable as Atlanta attempts to dig itself out of an early season hole.
Longtime key contributors wore out the departures gate at Hartsfield-Jackson airport this offseason. The Braves lost Max Fried, Charlie Morton and Travis d’Arnaud in free agency and traded Jorge Soler to the Los Angeles Angels. Profar was expected to replace Soler’s bat in the lineup after a breakout season with the San Diego Padres in 2024. The 32-year-old posted career highs in home runs (24), RBIs (85), OPS+ (135), and WAR (4.3) last season before hitting the market. Now, he’s sidelined until at least July.
Atlanta is already dealing with a depleted roster. Star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. is still recovering from a torn ACL and will be sidelined until at least May. Catcher Sean Murphy is dealing with a cracked rib, and young ace Spencer Strider is still on the mend from Tommy John surgery. Reynaldo López, a 2024 breakout, was placed on the injured list Monday with shoulder inflammation after making his first start of the season. And to add insult to injury, reliever Hector Neris was released Monday after allowing five runs in his two appearances with the team—including blowing a lead on Opening Day.
The Braves opened 2025 against the Padres, who swept them out of the playoffs in two games last October. The result was largely the same in the opening four-game series as in October. San Diego dominated in every facet, outscoring their opponents 17–7 in the series and shutting Atlanta out in the final two games.
Monday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t go much better, as starter Grant Holmes was tagged for four runs in four innings, and Tyler Glasnow teamed up with the Dodgers’ bullpen to allow one run and strike out 14 Braves in a 6–1 win. It continued the team’s brutal hitting woes to open the campaign.
So far, Atlanta is hitting .144 as a team with an OPS of .478, including an MLB-worst .036 (1-for-28) with runners in scoring position. Only one Brave who has played in two or more games has a batting average of .200 or better. That player? Jurickson Profar.
Things will surely improve when Acuña and Murphy are healthy, but with Profar gone, there will still be a large hole in the lineup.
The offense hasn’t been Atlanta’s only issue early. The team’s bullpen has been downright awful so far. Braves relievers rank 24th leaguewide with an ERA of 6.19, and opponents are hitting .267 against them. Neris played a big part in those ugly numbers—the bullpen’s ERA would drop nearly two runs without his two outings baked in—but Atlanta is still dangerously short on arms it can trust in high-leverage situations.
The Braves are too good to be this dreadful, but a string of bad luck has put them on the back foot to start the season. When Acuña is back, a core that includes him, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Michael Harris II and Murphy should be able to produce runs at a solid clip. If Strider recovers, he, Chris Sale, and a healthy López should be able to anchor a solid rotation. But that assumes no one else goes down.
Profar’s suspension was the rancid cherry on top of a brutal opening week from the Braves. No Braves team to start 0–5 has ever made the postseason. The only positive spin is that Profar’s suspension frees up over $5 million in salary cap space, putting Atlanta roughly $14 million below the luxury tax threshold. The Braves may need to use that to space on some midseason acquisitions and hope their injured list gets less crowded soon, or it could be a long season in Atlanta.
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