Ozzie Albies Is Trying Something New Tonight

The Atlanta Braves will welcome back their starting second baseman this weekend, but doing something he's virtually never tried before

The Atlanta Braves are working towards keeping their playoff hopes alive in the National League Wild Card race. Following the recent series win against the Cincinnati Reds two games to one, including a blowout win in the finale on Thursday, the Braves remain two games behind both the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets for one of the final spots in October.

It was announced that Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies is expected to rejoin the ball club on Friday as Atlanta begins their final series on the road against the Miami Marlins. However, the team will not be getting back the same Ozzie Albies they had at the beginning of the season, at least from a production aspect.

Let me explain.

The Braves three-time All-Star will return to the squad only batting right-handed, something that the switch hitter has not done a ton, especially when a righty is on the mound.

Since his MLB Debut in August 2017, Albies has only seen 66 pitches when going right vs right, hitting three homers in fifteen total at-bats. That is less than 0.5% of the 14,623 pitches he has seen across his career heading into his return.

Sounds wild, doesn’t it?

What if I told you that the number that actually matters is much smaller? Out of those 66 pitches, more than half of them were against position players on the mound. Ozzie Albies has only seen 30 pitches (less than 0.25% of all pitches) against actual pitchers on the mound. Although some of these were in big moments, they only occurred across six plate appearances and against three different pitchers.

2021 World Series Game 4 vs. Zack Greinke

This is easily the most important two at-bats that Albies has taken in his career when referring to right vs. right. The Braves second baseman faced Greinke twice in that World Series game, each time recording an out. Of the 11 pitches he saw overall against the former Astros right-hander, contact was made on four different occasions, including three foul balls and a ground out to finish his plate appearance. Only the ground out consisted of a hard-hit ball (105.1 mph).

2021 Regular Season vs. Ryne Harper

The most successful Albies has been, when looking at his small history of right vs. right, in the 2021 regular season. Ozzie took two plate appearances against Washington Nationals reliever Ryne Harper; the only difference here is that they occurred in different games. His first in August of that season was a quick three-pitch ground out (that was hit hard, at least, at 97.7 mph), but his final at-bat against Harper was the only home run the Braves All-Star has in his career in this configuration. The homer went 418 feet with an exit velocity of 104 mph.

2018 Regular Season vs. Steven Wright

There’s a first for everything, right? In this case, that was Red Sox hurler Steven Wright for Albies when the slugger took his first at-bats as a righty against a fellow righty on the mound. Like the Harper at-bats, Ozzie had two plate appearances but in different games during the season. The results were not the same, however, as Albies lined out and walked during his time at the plate.

One of the only things these three pitchers have in common is that they are no longer pitchers in the Major Leagues. Grienke has not pitched since last season, Harper 2021, and Wright was done after the 2019 season. So when Albies returns this weekend, it will be a brand new matchup for him and the Braves batting order.

So he hasn’t had much experience with what he is about to attempt, and with only nine games left in the season as the Braves are clawing to stay alive for a chance to play in October, how do we know this will work?

Well, simply put, we don’t.

However, Albies has seen some success this past week in his rehab assignment with the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers. Much like his MLB examples above, these numbers are from another small sample size, but he went 2-5 on Wednesday night, with both hits coming against a righty on the mound. This included a base hit with an exit velocity of 105 mph.

The Braves star obviously has the potential to lift the Braves lineup and give them the extra boost they need to find a way into the postseason. If Ozzie’s successful at making a splash, the pieces are in place for what can hopefully be another magical run toward Atlanta’s first championship since 2021. However, it’s clear that it will be by doing something we've almost never seen before from the infielder. We are not sure what exactly to expect when Ozzie steps up to the plate on Friday night at loanDepot Park in Miami, but we do know it most likely won’t be worse than what we have seen lately.