The North Port Report: Did Austin Riley Figure Out What Went Wrong?

Here's everything you need to know from Braves Spring Training in North Port, FL from Thursday

Welcome to The North Port Report, your nightly notebook from Braves spring training. Each evening, we’ll run through the biggest developments from camp: roster battles, injury updates, standout performances, and the small details that matter more than they seem in February. The games may not count yet, but the information does.

Here’s what stood out today

A new look Austin Riley

We knew from the BravesFest Gala that Riley now had longer hair and the beginnings of a beard, something that he admitted was because he “needed a reset after last season.”

Photo courtesy of the Atlanta Braves

But that’s not all Riley was doing this winter. He worked with hitting coach Tim Hyers, looking at video of what he did during the 2021-2023 span where Riley hit .286/.352/.525 and averaged 36 homers & 99 RBI. Hyers identified some things for Riley to work on, with Austin specifically calling out a hip slide in his mechanics that negatively impacted his timing.

You can most clearly see the timing issue when it comes to offspeed pitches. Riley was hitting over .300 on them from 2021-2023 before falling to .293 in 2024 and then .250 last season. When you combine that with his recurring trouble against sliders down and away, it’s easy to see how his performance could crater from a 136 wRC+ (2021-2023) to last season’s 103.

Quick Hits

• Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner spoke to the media on Thursday. He now refers to his former employer, divisional opponent New York Mets, as “that team up north”, so that’s fun.

• Ronald Acuña Jr. did his entire media availability in English, something he’s been working towards for multiple years. He proclaims that he feels “200%” coming into the season and won’t have any hesitation to steal bases this year. He also admitted that he found out that artist Bad Bunny wanted him to be on the field for the halftime show the day of the Super Bowl.

  • As of the time of publication, Braves Today podcast sponsor FanDuel has Ronald Acuña Jr.s MVP odds at +1100.

• Live ABs. Acuña faced Chris Sale on Thursday, with Sale and Walt Weiss having an amusing exchange prior to getting started. When finding out that he was facing Acuña, Sale exclaimed, “First live BP, and you give me this?!!” Walt Weiss responded with “Acuña is thinking the same thing.” Sale struck out Ronald twice, but gave up a deep fly ball to Chadwick Tromp before getting two groundouts of Ozzie, both towards where the shortstop would be.

  • JR Ritchie walked Drake Baldwin before giving up a double to Ronald Acuña Jr. and a bloop single to Ozzie. He induced a groundout of Baldwin, subbing back in, to end the session.

  • Hurston Waldrep struck out Chadwick Tromp before walking Ronald and hitting Ozzie with a pitch. He then induced a Tromp pop-out to end it.

• In former Braves news, free agent Ian Anderson tore the labrum in his throwing shoulder on Christmas Eve while working out in New York. The righthander had surgery on January 13th, being given a timeline of six to eight months of rehabilitation. His plans are to begin throwing again late in the summer or early in the fall, with a goal of returning to MLB for the 2027 season.

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Observation of the Day

Spencer Strider specifically singled out his fastball shape as the main thing he worked on this season. He regained some of his lost induced vertical break late last season, but the pitch was still too far away from where it was in 2023.

He said that having a longer offseason allowed him to spend more time with his teammates (I wasn’t clear if he meant Braves teammates or folks he works with on baseball, but I suspect it’s the latter) and figure out new ways he can improve and build a plan for it.

I’ve long advocated for Strider to add some sort of horizontal moving fastball to his arsenal, either a cutter to bridge the fastball and slider or a sinker/two-seamer to replace his poor changeup as an armside offering. I can’t wait to see what he looks like on the mound this spring.

Tomorrow’s watch list

Here’s what I am watching for from spring training on Friday:

• A broadcast arrangement announcement. Friday marks just over a week from the first games of spring training, so Atlanta dropping some more information about their broadcast plans for this season and their coverage for Grapefruit League would make a ton of sense.