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On April 29, 2021, Matt Olson<\/a> hit himself in the face with a baseball in the batting cage at Tropicana Field. A freak bounce off the L-screen left him with the kind of shiner<\/a> an athlete can usually only acquire by going 12 rounds with Marvin Hagler, but fortunately no lasting damage. By May 2, Olson was well enough to return to the lineup, and he hasn\u2019t missed a game since.<\/p>\n Olson\u2019s consecutive games streak now stands at 820; not only is this the longest active run in baseball, he recently passed Nellie Fox<\/a> for the 11th-longest streak in MLB history. Assuming he avoids any further batting practice mishaps, Olson will end the season with the eighth-longest streak ever. Only seven players in MLB history \u2014 and 10 in all of North American top-level sports \u2014 have ever played in 1,000 straight games. Olson is due to become the 11th before the All-Star break next year. <\/p>\n This is undeniably an impressive athletic feat. For the past five seasons \u2014 and really, close to a decade, dating back to his early days in Oakland \u2014 Olson has been good enough to demand a starting position in a big league lineup. And for good teams, more often than not. He\u2019s taken good enough care of his body to withstand the (considerable, even for a first baseman) physical toll of a 162-game major league season, and avoided injury through impact as well as wear-and-tear. (Olson has been hit by 30 pitches during his streak, and escaped with his hamate bone intact.)<\/p>\n As much as I admire Olson\u2019s commitment and dedication, I have a bit of a crank take on iron man streaks: If you literally never miss a game, you\u2019re probably hurting the team.<\/p>\n Olson has been suiting up six days a week every season for five years, and while he\u2019s not taking the beating of a catcher or middle infielder, he\u2019s still exerting himself enough to require rest. Not a lot, but skipping the odd day game after a night game might help him save his strength for big moments later in the year.<\/p>\n Since Olson joined the Braves in 2022, Atlanta has won 100 regular-season games twice. But the Braves\u2019 postseason record is 2-8, and they\u2019ve failed to win a single playoff round since their World Series title in 2021. Olson is hitting .250\/.357\/.417 with two homers in those 10 games, which is just fine in a vacuum but below his normal standards. <\/p>\n
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In 2023, the Braves won 104 games with an unusually stable lineup: All nine starting position players played at least 100 games. Eight of them played at least 138 games, and in addition to the irreplaceable Olson, both Austin Riley<\/a> and Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/a> played 159 games apiece.<\/p>\n This is, from soup to nuts, one of the best regular-season teams I can remember. The Braves not only won a division that sent three teams to the playoffs, but they won it by 14 games. Olson was unbelievable, belting a career-high 54 home runs and hitting .283\/.389\/.604. This was one of those seasons that bears reaching back for the old-timey stats: Olson scored 127 runs and drove in 139. Had Acu\u00f1a not scrambled away with the MVP trophy, Olson would\u2019ve made a run at the award himself.<\/p>\n Olson followed that season up with back-to-back 29-homer campaigns. Acu\u00f1a and Riley both battled injuries as Atlanta\u2019s win total dropped by 15 from 2023 to 2024, and another 13 from 2024 to 2025.<\/p>\n The more tired the Braves looked, the more convinced I became that I had been right all along: Bossman gives you all that PTO for a reason, and you\u2019re only hurting yourself if you don\u2019t take it.<\/p>\n Six weeks into the 2026 season, I find myself\u2026 chastened<\/em>. The Braves are 26-12, and Olson has, without exaggeration, been the best player in the National League. He\u2019s hitting .301\/.388\/.671 with 13 home runs in 38 games, and if there are fluke indicators hiding in his stat line, they\u2019re not especially troubling.<\/p>\n He is swinging the bat harder than in any previous season for which bat tracking data is available. And he\u2019s making more contact than ever (both within and outside the zone) and striking out at his lowest rate since 2021.<\/p>\n As you might suspect from a hitter with a 50-homer season on his CV, Olson has always had terrific raw power. His long levers and looping, graceful swing have never evinced the raw strength or violence you\u2019ll find among the true exit velo monsters \u2014 even graceful lefties like Shohei Ohtani<\/a>. Olson hits the ball hard a lot, and he puts the ball in the air a lot, and so a lot of his fly balls carry out of the yard.<\/p>\n In 2023, Olson posted a HR\/FB% of 27.8%, second behind Ohtani among qualified hitters. Last year, that number was down to 16.0%, which was 38th in the league. This year: 23.6%. Here\u2019s one of the 55 fly balls Olson has hit this year.<\/p>\n
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