Are 2022 Atlanta Braves better than the 2021 team?

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

NORTH PORT, Fla. — You heard the bickering, and you knew it was spring.

At the Atlanta Braves' complex in North Port, nothing indicates the change of season, the oncoming rhythm of the baseball season, quite like the playful banter between Ozzie Albies and Ron Washington.

Albies, franchise second baseman, and Washington, third-base coach and infield savant, have established themselves in recent years as the best comedy duo in the National League. The two bicker and razz each other endlessly, swiftly passing trash talk back and forth like Olympic table-tennis players. Their relationship, and Washington’s substantial impact on the club as a whole, became one of the main storylines surrounding Atlanta’s incredible World Series run in October.

But with the lockout restrictions in place, the Abbott and Costello of modern baseball were forbidden from communicating for most of the winter. So spring training this year has been a reunion of sorts, with the two picking up right where they left off. Anybody standing around the Braves' backfields at 10 a.m. Wednesday was treated to the grand reopening of The Wash and Ozzie Show.

Washington, known for his grounder-hitting wizardry, miss-hit a fungo intended for Albies. The ball five-hopped across the grass before rolling at a comically slow pace to Ozzie’s feet. He picked it up, stared at Washington and bellowed across the infield, loud enough for Braves fans back in Atlanta to hear: "You get weak over the offseason, Wash?"

Without missing a beat, the old ball coach hollered back: "Those slow ones happen in the game too, Ozzie."

Washington and Albies’ joyful ribbing isn’t the only thing back from the 2021 team. Like the majority of World Series-winning teams, the Braves returned almost their entire championship roster. There were notable departures, for sure — Freddie Freeman is doing spring training at Dodgers camp in Arizona this year, if you didn’t notice — but the main core is back, relaxed and ready for another journey into late October. 

And you know what? This team is even better than last year’s.

So much did not go to plan for the 2021 Braves. 

Ronald Acuña Jr. was literally the best player in baseball in the first half, until he tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season. A slew of catcher injuries meant Atlanta gave a combined 61 starts (!!!) and 234 plate appearances (!!!) to the fivesome of Jonathan Lucroy, Kevan Smith, Stephen Vogt, Alex Jackson and Jeff Mathis, who combined for two home runs. 

Mike Soroka, who finished sixth in the 2019 Cy Young voting as a 21-year-old, reinjured his Achilles in June and didn’t throw a pitch all year. And Marcell Ozuna, who was Atlanta’s second-best hitter in 2020, was arrested in late May after a domestic violence incident with his wife and didn't play the remainder of 2021. 

You’ve heard the story a million times by now: GM Alex Anthopolous rebuilt the outfield at the July trade deadline, Joc Pederson wore some pearls, and by the end of October, everyone was doing snow angels in confetti. Acuña was in line to run away with the MVP, he went down, and the Braves won the whole thing anyway. 

In many ways, the bumpy road taught the Braves how to persevere and compete when the odds were stacked against them — qualities that shined through in the postseason.

That close-knit camaraderie, like The Wash and Ozzie Show, has carried into 2022.

At camp Wednesday, catcher Travis d’Arnaud explained the current vibe pretty succinctly: "This sounds cliché, but this group of guys genuinely likes one another and genuinely likes baseball." 

That sentiment was on full display later in the afternoon, when Kenley Jansen made his first Braves pitching appearance on the backfields against the Pirates' High-A team. As the team’s $16 million closer warmed up, a squadron of Braves relievers, including Luke Jackson, Tyler Matzek and Will Smith, wandered over in shorts and flip-flops to watch their newest teammate in his first outing. 

Jansen looked shaky, giving up a bomb in his one inning of work, but that doesn’t really mean anything. What does is that the key members of last year’s memorable "Night Shift" bullpen made the cross-complex trek to check out Jansen. The gesture is indicative of the culture d’Arnaud was talking about.

Even though Freeman is gone, the clubhouse chemistry isn’t going anywhere. Freeman was a fan favorite, an MVP, the face of the franchise, but if he were truly irreplaceable, well, the organization that built the franchise’s first World Series team in 25 years wouldn’t have replaced him.

But the Braves have. Matt Olson is the hometown Georgia kid who might be even better than Freeman moving forward and has a sparkling reputation as a teammate. If anyone on earth is qualified to fill Freeman’s enormous shoes, it’s the guy Atlanta acquired.

And while things will certainly go wrong for the 2022 team — someone will get hurt, somebody will under-perform, such is baseball, such is life — the current roster stacks up favorably to last year’s. Jansen and Collin McHugh are two incredibly reliable relievers who should lock down the ninth inning and provide some multi-inning flexibility, respectively.

Austin Riley looks primed to continue his sensational second half and establish himself as one of the best third basemen in baseball. And while many fans are understandably uncomfortable with Ozuna’s immediate reintegration into the clubhouse after his domestic violence suspension, the fact of the matter is that he’s going to play. 

But the main difference is Acuña. Through 82 games last season before he tore his ACL on July 10, the 24-year-old had 24 home runs and 17 steals and was on pace for an 8.3 fWAR season, almost two full wins more than that of eventual NL MVP Bryce Harper. Acuña is on pace to return in late April, DHing exclusively for about a month or so until he’s mobile enough to return to the outfield.

During backfield batting practice Wednesday, he looked like the same fun-loving, electric talent who has captivated baseball fans since he debuted in 2018. The ease and effortlessness that turned Acuña into one of the sport’s brightest young stars was on full display, as he dispatched homer after homer beyond the fence in left field, flexing for the camera after each dinger-filled round. If he’s even half as good as he was in 2021 pre-injury, the Braves are in great shape.

And that’s the other overlooked dynamic about Freeman leaving. It wasn’t "re-sign Freddie, or fans will have to buy Jace Peterson and Julio Teherán and Tyler Flowers jerseys." There are other superstars afoot. Like, that’s Ronald Acuña Jr. right over there. Ozzie Albies, too. And there’s Dansby Swanson and Austin Riley. Now Ron Washington is dancing again. In fact, it’s mostly the same group of dudes you spent all October watching on your TV. 

So even though it feels like forever and a lockout since the confetti settled, the cigars got smoked and the fast bus was put into park, the Atlanta Braves haven’t really changed much. 

And, fortunately for the Braves and their fans, that’s a good thing.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.