Can the Braves keep up with the pace that they’ve set for themselves thus far?

The Atlanta Braves, as of this writing, have a 28-13 record on the season which is the best record in baseball and the best winning percentage (.683) amongst MLB teams. Over the course of 162 games, this winning percentage puts them on a 111-win pace. Let’s take a look at MLB history to see if sustaining this type of momentum over the course of an entire MLB season is a realistic feat or if this is more of a pipedream.

MLB history says…

There have been five instances throughout MLB history where teams have finished with 111 wins or more on the season, with only one of those seasons (the 2022 Los Angeles Dodgers, the owners of a 111-51 record) occurring within recent memory.

The other four such teams include the 1906 Chicago Cubs (116 wins), 2001 Seattle Mariners (116), 1998 New York Yankees (114), and the 1954 Cleveland Indians (111). All five of these teams were littered with several notable Hall of Famers (or in the case of the Dodgers, future Hall of Famers) throughout their respective team rosters, including: Mariano Rivera, Ichiro Suzuki, Mookie Betts, Frank Chance, & Bob Feller.

The verdict

So, I would say that the likely answer to the question, “can the Braves keep up with the pace that they’ve set for themselves thus far?” is a resounding no, given that it is possible, but not realistic that the team is able to sustain this pace over 162 games.

However, the Braves don’t need to keep up with such a historic momentum for their season to be deemed a success, as it should be noted that there has only been one of these five extraordinary teams (the 1998 NY Yankees) that has won the World Series. Something like a .600 winning percentage over the course of the rest of this season seems much more realistic, and this pace would still have the Braves with 101 wins. That amount of wins would almost certainly win them the division at the very least.

More reasons for optimism

Spencer Strider, Sean Murphy, and Raisel Iglesias all returned from their respective stints on the injured list during the team’s 6-3 road trip which concluded on Sunday. Not only did all three of these players play valuable roles during the road trip, their presence also had an “addition by subtraction” effect on the rest of the team’s roster. Jonah Heim and José Suarez were amongst the roster crunch casualties created by the team’s need to open up roster spots, as they were both picked up by other teams.

Ha-Seong Kim was reinstated from the IL on Monday, with the expectation for him being that he is set to make his season debut against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. His presence should allow for Mauricio Dubón to spend more time playing in the outfield, which favors the team’s current needs since Ronald Acuña Jr. & Eli White are currently on the team’s IL with a hamstring strain & concussion, respectively.

All of this is to say that the Braves have achieved this unprecedented level of success despite dealing with plenty of early season adversity in the form of player injuries. When Ronald Acuña Jr., Eli White, and Spencer Schwellenbach rebound from their respective injuries later this season, the sky truly is the limit for this talented team.