What is Matt Olson’s current situation?

After a record-breaking 2023 season, the first baseman for the Atlanta Braves is having a very difficult time. However, why? First baseman Matt Olson of the Atlanta Braves led the league in 2023 with a.604 slugging percentage and 139 RBIs, setting an all-time record for the team with 54 home runs. He set the standard high in his first two seasons in Atlanta, but this season he’s been perhaps the most disappointing Braves player. Despite being on track to play in all 162 games, he is currently on pace for 22 home runs, 73 RBIs, and a.396 slugging percentage in 2024. He’s hitting a horrendous.119 in July with a team-worst.400 OPS, just one home run, and eighteen strikeouts.

After going 0-for-12 against the St. Louis Cardinals in his previous series, the 2023 Silver Slugger was demoted from cleanup to hitting fifth in the lineup on Sunday in an attempt to give the lefty better pitches to hit. In actuality, he is hitting pitches but is blatantly failing to connect with them. On Saturday, he struck out in back-to-back at-bats on these fastballs.

Olson is experiencing a depressing overall.Through 97 games this season, he is 224/.303/.396. What is going on here, then? Eno Sarris of the Athletic claims that a large portion of it stems from his difficulties with fastballs that are thrown low and away, an area where Olson hammered baseballs a year before. Sarris utilized a remark from Olson to illustrate it, mentioning a change he made to swing above the ball rather than beneath it.

The change was mostly to help him get to the slider at the bottom of the zone, one of his few weaknesses at the plate in 2023, but pitcher’s have used that against him and started rushing him with fastballs.