The Braves struggle with lethargy in May for the first time in a very long time.
I believe I began writing these monthly summaries during the terrible rebuilding years, back when the Braves weren’t very good. I’ve been extremely lucky over the last five or six years in that an activity designed to draw attention to the few positive aspects (and many unavoidable negative aspects) of those years has turned into more of a record of the Braves’ month-by-month dominance. I have only had to write a monthly recap about a lost month six times since they started winning division titles. For the past eleven seasonal months, I have not needed to do so at all. However, May 2024 has now passed, and here I am once more. The month wasn’t very good.
Ultimately, a 13–14 month period isn’t all that horrible. It is highly probable for any team, no matter how excellent or amazing, to fall below.500 for a minimum of one four-week period. Not to mention, the Braves were so good in April that May didn’t really do that much damage to the team’s hopes—at least not as much as it could have if 2024 turned out to be a repeat of 2022, when the team struggled until the summer. This stretch also came early enough that the Braves have plenty of time to repair its damage.
How come the stretch wasn’t good? That’s basically the offense. With a wRC+ of 88 in May, the Braves were just above the bottom five; among position players, they finished 23rd with a total of 1.9 fWAR. As the Braves’, the team wasn’t solely to blame.318 xwOBA placed 12th overall in May. However, in the 27 games they played, they had the second-biggest xwOBA underperformance in the league, which should come as no surprise to anyone who watched the month closely. They placed seventh in the top ten barrels for May, but once more, in
Not surprisingly, they were dead last in the league-average rate of barrels becoming home runs (34 percent vs a league-average rate of 45 percent for May) and ranked 28th in the rate of barrels becoming hits (61 percent, compared to a league-average rate of 67 percent).
The team was only partially successful in surviving the punishment for hitting the ball well due of the outstanding pitching. Only the Phillies and Padres had higher fWAR in May than the pitching staff. The bullpen finished 14th (fifth in ERA, 15th in FIP, and 25th in xFIP), but in all honesty, it’s difficult to really blame the bullpen for pitching poorly given that the lack of wins made it so many innings were simply eaten in games the Braves didn’t contest late. The rotation finished fifth (sixth in ERA, third in FIP, and xFIP). (The guys the team views as its “pitching with a lead” contingent threw less than half of the team’s May bullpen innings.)