Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson has not had the best spring offensively to this point. The 30-year-old owns a .212/.297/.394 slash line with two home runs in 13 games and 37 Grapefruit League appearances. Olson started the 2024 season sluggishly but ended the season with a respectable .247/.333/.457 slash line, 29 HR, 78 runs scored, and 98 RBI in 685 plate appearances. Olson has hit for a high batting average at times in his career, but his career average sits at .254. The more important thing for 2025 will be to see if he can regain his elite power swing. While he still impacted the ball hard in 2024 with a 91.5-MPH average exit velocity, that value came in as his lowest since 2016. Olson is currently being drafted as the fourth first baseman in fantasy drafts and should be expected to provide great counting stats outside of stolen bases, especially assuming some hard-hit regression toward his career average.
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson went 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI in Thursday's victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The 30-year-old has begun to heat up at the plate and is carrying an impressive .317/.432/.567 line with nine extra-base hits and a 13:9 BB:K ratio since the start of the month. Overall, Olson has had a down year to his standards, tallying only 28 home runs compared to the 54 he hit last season. Under the hood, he still carries an above-average 12.2% barrel rate and 43.6% hard-hit rate, which suggests the power surge should continue throughout the rest of the season. Fantasy managers should always leave Olson in their starting lineup and could be worth a look in DFS formats while he enjoys this hot stretch.
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson had a nice game at the plate in Monday's 10-6 win over the Twins. Olson went 3-for-5 with two doubles, a three-run home run, five RBI, and a strikeout. The 30-year-old helped cap off a big first inning, launching a Bailey Ober cutter into the second right-center deck for his 23rd HR of the season. Olson has had a disappointing season overall, but August has been relatively better. He is now slashing .247/.340/.528 with six HR and 21 RBI in 89 August at-bats. Olson's batting average has varied throughout his career, but he has always provided elite power, so fantasy managers should be happy to see him finally start to produce in that regard as the fantasy playoffs approach.
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and three runs scored in Wednesday's 13-2 win over the Giants. The 30-year-old also walked once and the hits extended his current hit streak to six games. After blasting 54 home runs last season, it took some time for Olson to get going this season with just 13 of them as of July 26 (102 games), but since then the 2x All-Star has hit eight in his last 18 games. Strikeouts are up big for him compared to last season and walks are down big which has contributed to the underperformance, but last season Olson slashed .352/.452/.695 with 11 home runs over the final month of the season, so he may just be heating up for that final stretch.
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson went 2-for-4 with a walk and a pair of home runs in Saturday's 11-8 win over the Rockies, bringing his season total to 20. The first home run was a grand slam in the third inning and the second was a two-run blast in the seventh. The 2023 home run leader (54) has taken a while to get going but now has seven home runs in his last 14 games along with 16 RBI. Olson is striking out much more this year than last, 23.2% last season compared to 28.0% this season, despite a slightly higher contact rate this year. The 30-year-old's barrel rate has dropped nearly 5.0% as well, leading to a big dip in home runs. Hopefully he can finish strong, as he did in 2023, but right now his .230-20-60-50-0 line has to be a disappointment for fantasy managers that drafted him.
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson put together a big day at the plate in Wednesday afternoon's win over the hosting Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field, clubbing his 15th and 16th home runs of the season in the victory. After getting the Braves on the board with a solo homer off Brewers ace Freddy Peralta in the fourth inning, Olson crushed his second long ball of the game to give Atlanta an insurance run and a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning. The 30-year-old slugging superstar has endured a tough year in 2024 following an absurd 2023 campaign, but over his last eight games, Olson has looked better at the plate while batting .290 (9-for-31) with four round-trippers, six RBI, and five runs scored. Keep deploying him on a daily basis in all fantasy leagues as he works his way out of the skid.
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run in Saturday's 11-9 loss to the Athletics. The 2x All-Star also walked once, scored once, and collected two RBI in the contest. After a poor 31-game start that left his slashline at .195/.319/.363 with three home runs, the slugger has picked up the pace, going 28-for-95 (.295) with six home runs over his last 25 games and raising his season-long slashline to a more respectable .240/.328/.447. Fantasy managers may find some solace in the fact that the slugger started off 2023 slowly as well, but from June 1 through the end of the season, he hit .309 with 37 home runs, 97 RBI, and 83 runs scored.
Matt Olson Slugs Home Run, Drives In Four Runs On Tuesday
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson finished Tuesday night 2-for-3 with one home run, four RBI, a walk, and a run scored in the Braves 7-0 win against the Chicago Cubs. It was Olson's fifth home run of the season and only his second home run in May. Coming back down to earth in 2024 was expected for the lefty slugger after producing career-high numbers in home runs, RBI, and batting average in 2023. He's currently on pace for only 20 HR and a .218 batting average after hitting 54 HR with a .283 batting average in 2023. It's not quite the encore season fantasy managers were hoping for out of the power-hitting first baseman. Olson has produced two homers in his last five games, which hopefully means he has found the power stroke to turn his season around.
Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson homered during Friday's 4-2 win over the New York Mets, snapping a stretch that saw the All-Star go 26 straight games without going deep. Olson had not homered since he went deep off Diamondbacks hurler Ryne Nelson in the second inning of a 5-2 win over Arizona on April 7. The home run, just Olson's fourth of the season, was only the fifth hit he had recorded in the month of May, entering Friday's game with a .190/.290/.190 slash line in 21 at-bats prior to Friday. Despite his recent struggles, Olson remains a must-start in all league formats. Overall, the 30-year-old slugger is slashing .202/.311/.372 with four home runs, 18 RBI, and 16 runs across 151 plate appearances in 2024.
Atlanta Braves first basemen Matt Olson went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts Sunday against the Texas Rangers. Olson's strikeout issues continue to stack up as he struck out six times in three games over the weekend, finishing 0-for-12 with one run, one RBI, and two walks. The struggles have followed him all season long as he is hitting .231 (18-for-92) with seven doubles, one triple, three homers, 12 runs, 13 RBI, 12 walks, and 26 strikeouts over 20 games. Despite striking out four times on Sunday, Olson remains a must-start in all league formats.
Matt Olson
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Braves
