Matt Olson DVOA, Advanced Stats, & Fantasy Rankings

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson has not had the best spring offensively to this point. The 30-year-old owns a .212/.297/.394 slash line with two home runs in 13 games and 37 Grapefruit League appearances. Olson started the 2024 season sluggishly but ended the season with a respectable .247/.333/.457 slash line, 29 HR, 78 runs scored, and 98 RBI in 685 plate appearances. Olson has hit for a high batting average at times in his career, but his career average sits at .254. The more important thing for 2025 will be to see if he can regain his elite power swing. While he still impacted the ball hard in 2024 with a 91.5-MPH average exit velocity, that value came in as his lowest since 2016. Olson is currently being drafted as the fourth first baseman in fantasy drafts and should be expected to provide great counting stats outside of stolen bases, especially assuming some hard-hit regression toward his career average.

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson went 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI in Thursday's victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The 30-year-old has begun to heat up at the plate and is carrying an impressive .317/.432/.567 line with nine extra-base hits and a 13:9 BB:K ratio since the start of the month. Overall, Olson has had a down year to his standards, tallying only 28 home runs compared to the 54 he hit last season. Under the hood, he still carries an above-average 12.2% barrel rate and 43.6% hard-hit rate, which suggests the power surge should continue throughout the rest of the season. Fantasy managers should always leave Olson in their starting lineup and could be worth a look in DFS formats while he enjoys this hot stretch.

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson had a nice game at the plate in Monday's 10-6 win over the Twins. Olson went 3-for-5 with two doubles, a three-run home run, five RBI, and a strikeout. The 30-year-old helped cap off a big first inning, launching a Bailey Ober cutter into the second right-center deck for his 23rd HR of the season. Olson has had a disappointing season overall, but August has been relatively better. He is now slashing .247/.340/.528 with six HR and 21 RBI in 89 August at-bats. Olson's batting average has varied throughout his career, but he has always provided elite power, so fantasy managers should be happy to see him finally start to produce in that regard as the fantasy playoffs approach.

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and three runs scored in Wednesday's 13-2 win over the Giants. The 30-year-old also walked once and the hits extended his current hit streak to six games. After blasting 54 home runs last season, it took some time for Olson to get going this season with just 13 of them as of July 26 (102 games), but since then the 2x All-Star has hit eight in his last 18 games. Strikeouts are up big for him compared to last season and walks are down big which has contributed to the underperformance, but last season Olson slashed .352/.452/.695 with 11 home runs over the final month of the season, so he may just be heating up for that final stretch.

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson went 2-for-4 with a walk and a pair of home runs in Saturday's 11-8 win over the Rockies, bringing his season total to 20. The first home run was a grand slam in the third inning and the second was a two-run blast in the seventh. The 2023 home run leader (54) has taken a while to get going but now has seven home runs in his last 14 games along with 16 RBI. Olson is striking out much more this year than last, 23.2% last season compared to 28.0% this season, despite a slightly higher contact rate this year. The 30-year-old's barrel rate has dropped nearly 5.0% as well, leading to a big dip in home runs. Hopefully he can finish strong, as he did in 2023, but right now his .230-20-60-50-0 line has to be a disappointment for fantasy managers that drafted him.