By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

When we start talking about the Atlanta Braves roster for the 2022 season, the first thing we need to do is just have everyone CALM DOWN.

Yes, this is a roster that does not include Freddie Freeman. He is now on a different roster, headquartered on the other side of the country. This fact is very sad but it is a fact with which we must all come to grips.

Especially since the new season has arrived and there are a whole 28 (for now) other players that are on the roster. And, I might add, it’s a roster that is primed to make another run at a championship.

First off, we have the return talents of Charlie Morton, Ian Anderson, Huascar Ynoa, Kyle Wright, and Opening Day starter Max Fried set to open the season in the starting rotation.

This is more or less the rotation that got the Braves through the postseason last year, which should instill some confidence in the hearts of the Braves faithful.

Fried and Anderson are low-key greats in the NL, despite the rings they’re about to receive, backed up by the gutsy veteran Morton, the still-not-quite- consistent Ynoa, and the postseason hero/still unproven in the regular season Wright.

I’d call that three you can count on and two talented question marks. And of course there’s always the looming specter of Mike Soroka getting healthy, assuming that ever happens.

Taking the ball from the starters is the Night Shift, most of whom are back to haunt opponents (Luke Jackson’s recent injury notwithstanding).

Will Smith, Tyler Matzek, and AJ Minter all return, joined now by the former Dodgers fireballer Kenley Jansen, and the bullpen looks to be in great shape yet again.

As for the plate and the field: the roster really doesn’t look so massively different as it did at the end of season; with one large, aforementioned exception.

Travis d’Arnaud returns as the backstop with William Contreras along with him (Manny Pina is also on the roster for the time being, as teams start the year with two extra players due to a shortened Spring Training).  d’Arnaud is in the second year of his two-year extension in 2022, which didn’t quite pay off last season as he followed up a stellar 2020 with an injury-plagued 2021.

He’s shown that he is capable of hitting the ball when he’s healthy, so the Braves will have to hope he stays on the field. If Contreras is the heir apparent for next season, he’ll need to get more at-bats and have better ones too.

That being said, if the rest of the lineup does their job, the catchers will just need to catch. The infield is as full of firepower as ever, with Austin Riley, Dansby Swanson, and Ozzie Albies all back to try and top their 33, 27, and 30 home run campaigns from last year.

Matt Olson, far from a scrub replacing Freeman, would have led the team in homers last year with 39.

The outfield is a little more of a mess, but not necessarily a troublesome one. Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall are back and will certainly hold their own at the plate and in the field.

The real question mark is who fills in for a few weeks until Ronald Acuna, Jr. returns to the outfield? The expectation has been that Marcel Ozuna will primarily serve as the designated hitter for Atlanta this year.

Ozuna is a former center fielder (those days are behind him) who can play left field in the interim while Brian Snitker plays around with the DH and keeps his players fresh to start.

Guillermo Heredia is another option to fill in playing outfield, but with that shortened Spring I think it is likely like Ozuna rotates in and out of the outfield rather than Snit settling into a consistent lineup, at least until early May. That is when Ronald Acuna Jr. is expected to be 100% healthy.

All told, this roster had made more headlines for who isn’t on it than for who is but the players who are on this team make up a squad that is tailored to run it back to the World Series and become the first back-to-back champions in over two decades.