Monday was bittersweet for Atlanta. Atlanta acquired Matt Olson from the Oakland A’s for Christian Pache, Shea Langeliers, Ryan Cusick, and Joey Estes. On the one hand, the reigning World Champions got much better by bringing in one of the best first basemen in baseball. But that assuredly puts an end to the Freddie Freeman era in Atlanta.
As an outsider, it’s hard to criticize this move for Atlanta. From a pure production standpoint, it’s hard to do better than Matt Olson. In 2021, Olson slashed .271/.371/.540 for a 153 OPS+ en route to a 5.8 rWAR season.