Everybody knows that the Braves don’t need to win the National League East to make the playoffs. There are three wild cards now, so they don’t even need to finish with one of the top two records for non-division winners. Getting in the postseason and then seeing what happens worked for the 2021 Braves, who weren’t the best team at the end of September but were in October. That could happen again.
Still, the Braves should have some urgency about overtaking the Mets to win the East. I’ve felt that way all season because wild-card teams will play a best-of-three opening round. There’s lots of luck involved with such a short series. The importance of winning the East increased when the Padres made a blockbuster trade this week.
It’s one thing if a wild-card berth for the Braves means facing the Cardinals or Brewers of the Central in the first round. There’s a big difference between that and navigating a lineup with Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis and Josh Bell. Doing so with little margin for error in a three-game set is not appetizing. The Braves have their own Big Four — Ronald Acuna, Austin Riley, Dansby Swanson and Matt Olson — but San Diego’s quartet is on another level.
