The Atlanta Braves are in an unfamiliar position for late September. They're fighting for their lives.
All season, the Braves have been hit with injury after injury, which has kept them from dominating the regular season as they have in years past. Thanks to a surge from the rival New York Mets, Atlanta finds themselves two games out of playoff position with just nine to play.
At this point, the Braves will take any additional help they can get to try and grind out wins. And as luck would have it, one of their most reliable hitters is on his way back. And to add some intrigue, he's making a dramatic change to his hitting routine.
Second baseman Ozzie Albies, who last played on Jul. 21 before fracturing his left wrist, will return to the lineup on Friday night against the Miami Marlins. And as an added twist, because that wrist is still bothering him when swinging left-handed, the switch hitter will batt only righty for the time being.
“Seeing the ball go away from him instead of into him will be an adjustment. But I think he’ll be all right. It would be a huge boost if he could come up here and be normalized right-handed," Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer said, per Mark Bowman of MLB.com. "If anybody can pull this off, he can."
The change makes sense for Albies--he has over a .930 career OPS batting right-handed and a .740 OPS batting lefty. In 14 career at-bats batting right-handed against righty pitchers, he has five hits, including three home runs.
There is frankly a case to be made that depending on how this trial period goes, Albies should become a right-handed batter full-time. He's proven to be significantly better from that side of the plate, so taking 70% of his at-bats from the wrong side could be counterproductive, even if his stats are still decent.
First things first, though. The Braves need to put the pedal to the medal in their pursuit of the playoffs. Getting a healthy Albies back in the lineup is a nice start to building some momentum.
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