Braves open camp in 2026 hoping for a perfect season from outfielder/designated hitter Jurickson Profar. He missed 80 games in 2025 following a PED suspension but was effective in his return. With a designated hitter Marcell Ozuna out the door, Profar and the newly signed outfielder Mike Yastrzemski he had a lot of time to play a lot of time.
Yes, we now know that Profar probably won’t play a single game in 2026. He also looked down on PED-related suspensions, and the penalty for second offenses went from 80 games to 162 games. Profar and the MLBPA appear intent on appealing the ban, but there is no precedent for the suspension being lifted outright.
At best, Profar may hope for a slight reduction, and even such cases are rare. The right hand Michael Pineda saw the 2019 suspension reduced from 80 to 60 games, but only after providing sufficient evidence that the banned abortion drug was not used as a masking agent for PEDs. Profar was not tested for a masking agent but rather for exogenous testosterone.
Assuming Profar’s season ban is upheld, Atlanta will have some decisions to make. The Braves are already down their shortstop and two-arm rotation this spring. Ha-Seong Kim he needed surgery to repair a muscle in his hand after skiing one season. Rights Spencer Schwellenbach again Hurston Waldrep both underwent elbow surgery to remove loose bodies and/or bone spurs.
The Braves are also now without Profar, who had been in the batting lineup and was expected to post a sound .248/.358/.446 batting line (126 wRC+) in 355 plate appearances when he returned from last year’s suspension. The veteran hitter walked at a whopping 13.2% clip and was successful in 15.8% of his plate appearances. He connected on 14 home runs, 16 doubles and a triple while contributing nine steals (in 11 attempts) on bases.
Losing Schwellenbach, Profar, Kim and Waldrep before the halfway mark of spring training is a tough way to start the season for an Atlanta club hoping for a better life than an injury-plagued 2025 campaign. If Braves fans have a silver lining, however, it’s that Profar’s suspension sends him to the restricted list and mandates that he will not be paid his $15MM salary. Not only do the Braves get out of that $15MM — they’re also spared $3MM in corresponding luxury taxes they would have paid to the league.
Obviously there is no guarantee that Atlanta will reinvest all of their savings. The Braves may choose to rely on in-house solutions to fill their newly acquired roster spots, then learn when the trade deadline arrives. That’s a defensible strategy, although the counterpoint would be that spending some of that money on an immediate addition would strengthen the team’s chances of making it to late July as a contender.
Most of the free agency and trade market have been decided, but there are some options that baseball president Alex Anthopoulos can explore with his unexpected $15MM in payroll flexibility late in the winter. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes briefly touched on this topic in yesterday’s post bag, but let’s look at another possibility.
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