A Macon, GA native, Cox was a fifth round draft choice in 2018 by the Kansas City Royals out of Mercer University. He made his major league debut with the Royals in 2023 and after bouncing around in the minor league system for a couple of years, Cox signed with Atlanta on May 5, a day after the Royals let him go.
A recent MLB Trade Rumors article previewed the 2025-2026 shortstop free agent class, with names like Bo Bichette and Trevor Story. It's a good read for Atlanta Braves fans, given the question mark at shortstop. Ha-Seong Kim has an opt-out this offseason, and after a down year at the plate, his return to Atlanta is far from certain. With few strong options on the market, his decision will be one to pay close attention to.
There's the enormous, three-year-running hole at shortstop, where the club will hopefully work out a deal of some kind with Ha-Seong Kim. Lord knows the starting rotation could use a reliable, take-the-ball-every-fifth-day arm to bolster a good-but-injury-prone group. And the bullpen is in search of a closer (and probably another high-leverage arm, too). The one spot on the roster that hasn't garnered much discussion in the early days of the offseason is designated hitter.
We're in the midst of a quiet stretch for the Atlanta Braves, with not a ton of news coming out of the organization. Rumors have begun to swirl around the league, but the Braves are keeping things pretty still for the most part. We are in a bit of a lull, so for now it's your turn to make offseason predictions.
1998 - The Braves score five runs in the eighth inning to rally and defeat the San Diego Padres 7-6. Michael Tucker hits a three-run home run and drives in five runs in the game. 1999 - Greg Maddux and the Braves defeat the Mets 4-2 in Game 1 of the NLCS. Eddie Perez homered for Atlanta in the win.
While we await the announcement of who the Atlanta Braves will hire as their next manager, it was reported that the team has parted ways with Paul Davis, director of pitching development. 61-year-old Davis joined the Braves in 2020. During his tenure in Atlanta, he helped guide Hurston Waldrep, Spencer Strider, AJ Smith-Shawver, and more. It does not appear that this is the beginning of lots of changes for the coaching staff, and instead, just an isolated move.
Well the Braves are presumably actively pursuing managerial candidates now, although the Anthopoulos front office notoriously runs a tight ship. David Ross has been a candidate often mused about, but I do wonder if he's too much of the same and not enough of a modern tactician. Of course, managing the egos and relationships of professional baseball players of many financial situations and backgrounds is crucial to the job of manager, in-game tactics are an important aspect of the job as well.
They still need help there (as evidenced by AA stating that that would be one of the positions "in the discussion" for improvement during this offseason) but at least they won't have to look far when it comes to finding some initial help. Kinley's initial stint with the Braves went about as well as everybody could've hoped for and again, bringing him back on the club option should really be a no-brainer.
If we do our job the way we want to do it, [the media] won't have anything. Before Skip Schumaker was named [as the Rangers manager] last night, there were eight openings. I remember some other years where there were a bunch of manager openings but I can't remember there being this many. That's a lot of openings, a lot of turnover, a lot of places where you have to get permission to speak to other coaches. That makes it incredibly challenging.
The Atlanta Braves entered the regular season waiting on the return of two of their biggest stars in outfielder Ronald Acuña, Jr. and starting pitcher Spencer Strider. Before the regular season began, the team lost starting catcher Sean Murphy in to Spring Training with a fractured rib. By the time July rolled around, the team had those three players back, but lost their entire Opening Day starting rotation to injury.
In my opinion, I've always maintained both publicly and privately that Atlanta would likely stay in-house when it came to their next manager. The cynic in me figured that the writing was on the wall when Fredi González returned to the fold as the "new" third base coach for the Braves earlier this season. Even if it wasn't Fredi, Walt Weiss is here as well and while he's never sat in the big chair for the Braves, he has had that experience with the Rockies.
The Braves announced today that five players have been sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. The five are outfielder Jarred Kelenic, right-handers Alexis Díaz and Dane Dunning, catcher and infielder Luke Williams. This indicates that all five players have cleared waivers in recent days. Atlanta's 40-man roster count drops to 35 for now, though they have 11 guys on the 60-day injured list.
Welp. Pulled this one out again, and given Sale's injury history, a season of anguish is probably more likely than a repeat of 2024. Unfortunate. We'll say accurateish here. Sale did suffer an injury that kept him to 125 innings and 20/21 starts, but those were very high-quality innings. He was still worth about 3.5 wins, and he had an FIP under 3.00.
With two outs in the top of the seventh in a 5-2 game with the Pirates leading, the skies suddenly opened up at Truist Park and prompted a rain delay between the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh. Keep it right here as we will provide updates and let you know when things are scheduled to get back underway.
It's a bit of a smart move on Atlanta's part, as doing this will save Harris a minor league option going forward and also get him a chance to actually (and hopefully) make one last appearance before the season ends. Harris has only pitched 2.2 innings across three appearances so far this season so the more appearances he can make at the big league level while he can, the better - even if it'll likely just be for this final moment of the season.
For the final time this season, the Atlanta Braves are gearing up for a three-game set with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Truist Park. Though the Braves were eliminated from playoff contention a while ago, it will still be a fun one to watch since it will likely be Charlie Morton's last outing. There's nothing at stake for the Pirates, either, who enter play with a 69-90 record. Nonetheless, the series gets underway Friday night at 7:15 ET with Joey Wentz on the bump.
The Atlanta Braves made a flurry of roster moves Tuesday that officially placed Ozzie Albies on the 10-day injured list due to a fractured hamate. In addition, right-hander Joel Payamps reported to Atlanta, infielder Brett Wisely was recalled, and righty Nathan Wiles was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. With just four games to go, we're finally getting to the close of what has felt like a never-ending roster shuffle.
The Braves will go for 10 straight wins on Tuesday night against the lowly Washington Nationals. It will be Hurston Waldrep taking the mound in what will probably be his final start of the season. The rookie sensation is leaps and bounds ahead of where he was this time a year ago, posting a 5-1 record with a 3.04 ERA, 3.19 FIP, 3.66 xFIP and 3.72 xERA across nine starts in the second half.
The Atlanta Braves are playing their best baseball of the season - and although it wasn't enough to save them from snapping their seven-year playoff streak - it has provided optimism for 2026 and, frankly, has been a heckuva a lot more fun that most of the season had been. By sweeping both the Washington Nationals and Detroit Tigers, there was no shortage of players who were outstanding over the past seven games.