“The confidence is still there,” but “no statements” from the Braves as spring training begins

The Braves once again have high expectations but the squad isn’t doing the grand proclamation of “World Series or bust” here in 2025.

Today is the day that keeps a lot of people warm during the long and cold winter that is baseball’s offseason. That’s because today is the day in particular where pitchers and catchers for the Atlanta Braves have reported to camp to start spring training. For years now, we’ve usually seen players other than pitchers and catchers show up on the first day it’s possible and as expected, that’s the case for the Braves. Grant McAuley reported that the “majority” of the team has reported to camp already and some of these guys have “been here for a while.” Again, it’s nothing new but it’s also a sign that the players themselves are chomping at the bit to get back into action.

Thanks to Grant and other Braves writers and reporters who were on the scene at North Port, we were able to get a decent idea of what the feeling and vibe is like as the team gets ready to embark on a long and hard road to the glory of October. One of the major things that happened last year was the emergence of a vocal “World Series or bust” attitude right out of the gate. Here in 2025, that type of talk has been reigned in just a little bit. As this mini-report from the AJC’s Justin Toscano puts it, Matt Olson and the Braves are feeling confident once again (as prominent projections suggest this isn’t a wholly unearned sentiment) but they aren’t going to have their intentions blaring with a megaphone for the world to hear here in 2025.

Of course, the two players that everybody wanted to see in action today were the players who had their seasons cut short due to injury. There are reports that Strider threw a bullpen session on Tuesday and apparently it went really well. Meanwhile, Ronald Acuña Jr. got into the cage and, well, he was doing Ronald Acuña Jr. things while he was in the cage. Manager Brian Snitker was happy with what he saw both from the fireballer on the mound and the dynamo at the plate — though it still seems like they’re both going to miss a decent amount time to start the season.

One player returning from injury who the Braves won’t have to worry about when it comes to being ready for Opening Day is Austin Riley. Riley’s 2024 campaign came to a shocking and unceremonious ending last August when he took a fastball to his wrist. There was further good news as Riley took BP and looked pretty solid at the plate. Again, with Riley being expected to be ready for Opening Day, it’s definitely an encouraging sign to see Atlanta’s star third baseman looking ready to make it happen here in 2025.

Then there’s another player whose season was cut short due to injury: Chris Sale. While Sale largely evaded the injury bug last season, he ended the season on 29 starts and it sure would’ve been nice if back spasms hadn’t prevented him from making his 30th start of the season — whether it took place during that fateful doubleheader against the Mets or during the NL Wild Card series against the Padres.

The good news is that it doesn’t appear as if Sale’s back is acting up on him here in February and appears to be ready to go. He’s saying all the right things, as you can tell by this article from the AJC’s Ken Sugiura as he covered Sale at spring training today. It’s safe to say that the odds are against Sale repeating the absolutely incredible performance that brought him back to the forefront of the pitching scene in baseball. Still, it’s also just as safe to say that Sale is likely going to show off a ton of determination when it comes to maintaining his form from 2024.

“Just when you think you’re out of it, you’re right back in it,” [Sale] said. “And right when you think you’ve got it, it’s gone. For me, especially, going through what I had been through in the past and stuff, how easily it can show up and how easily it can be gone is kind of the way I was looking at it.”

“I think I kind of found a routine that really worked for me last year, and when I needed to adjust, I could,” he said. “But, again, I’m basically just trying to replicate what last offseason looked like and kind of do the same thing in spring training, and hopefully it translates to the season.”

For the most part, it seems like the squad is rested up, fired up and ready to push for big things this season. There’s also the most pressing matter that I know all of y’all have been waiting to see get resolved as the new season gets underway. That’s the matter of the uniforms. If you haven’t heard any complaining from the players about the jerseys, pants or any other part of the uniform, that’s because Nike has reportedly kept their word and gone back to the fabric, lettering and numbering that was used before the 2024 season. That sound you hear is nearly every big league regular loudly releasing a sigh of relief as they’ll be able to get their pants custom-fitted once again.

When it comes to the Braves, it appears that the changes will be positive — if only for my own sake as the uniforms for the Braves just didn’t look right all season. From the belt loop piping only being on the home pants (though it was one of the things Nike fixed after the large hullabaloo concerning the uniforms last season, they still didn’t get around to adding the belt loop piping to the road rays and it bothered me all season. Yes, I’m a nerd) to the colors being slightly off in a way that would be noticeable if you knew what to look for (and I did. Again, I’m a nerd), it’s very intriguing to see the fixes in action.

At first glance, it appears that things have been fixed. The Braves usually wear their navy blue alternates for spring training and last year’s look was the first real sign that things were not 100 percent right when it came to the uniforms. This year, however, everything appears to look right. They’re wearing the navy jerseys again and they’re dark enough to where it looks familiar instead of being weird. The lettering for the names on the back of the jersey is large and bold and the numbering looks normal as well. Again, it’s early and we haven’t gotten an exhaustive look at the uniforms just yet but right now I’d say that it’s looking like Nike kept their word when it came to fixing the uniforms. Thank you for indulging my goofy rant on this subject!

There’s always an air of optimism and excitement surrounding the beginning of spring training and it’s clear that there’s plenty of measured optimism surrounding the Braves for this upcoming season. It’ll take a lot of players returning to their normal form and/or bouncing back right out of the gates from their respective injuries and ailments but if that does happen, it’s okay to imagine this being a really good season for the Braves. Hopefully we’ll continue to get positive news as spring training progresses.