Atlanta Braves: Austin Riley Must Make Adjustments

After a huge start Austin Riley is struggling mightily for the Atlanta Braves. Riley is consistently chasing poor pitches at the plate and showing less and less plate discipline as pitchers adjust.

Austin Riley was one of the early surprises for the Atlanta Braves. He came out of the minors swinging for the fences hitting homers with regularity and coming up with clutch hits. His poise and production surprised the Braves and seemingly earned him a spot for the remainder of the season.

Fast forward two months and Riley is a shell of a player compared to how well he was hitting early. While there was expected to be a bit of a drop off Riley has fallen off of a cliff since his first month of production.

In May Riley hit .356 with 7-homers and a whopping 20-RBI’s.  He was on fire and looked to be the Braves left fielder for the remainder of the season. In the month that followed Riley dropped to .226 for the month of June, and has hit .175 so far for the month of July.

These numbers aren’t ideal for a team who hopes to be a legitimate postseason contender this season. Riley’s struggles are stemming from the fact he has very little plate discipline in recent weeks.

Knowing Riley is aggressive pitchers have adjusted and aren’t throwing Riley many strikes. Instead of showing patience Riley is obliging swinging at pitches out of the zone.

This isn’t an indictment on the player Riley will be, simply part of the learning curve as Riley adjusts to the next level.

With Ender Inciarte expected to return this week optioning Riley back down would be the obvious move. Providing him time to work on his pitch recognition and provide depth if injury strikes Atlanta again.

Riley is still a huge part of Atlanta’s future, however, he has adjustments to make and now is the time for the Braves to make the tough move and send Riley down, putting Ender Inciarte back in center field.