ATLANTA, GEORGIA – OCTOBER 01: Ozzie Albies #1 and manager Walt Weiss #22 of the Atlanta Braves celebrate after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in game three of the National League Wild Card Series at Truist Park on October 01, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images) | Getty Images
By the time you’re reading this, the Atlanta Braves will either be on the plane to Los Angeles to face off against the Dodgers in the NLDS or already touched down in the City of Angels to meet their opponents in the Divisional Series. Either way, it’s certainly been a whirlwind 24-hour period for the Braves where they essentially had to lock back in after a night of rapturous celebrations following their big victory in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Despite the quick turnaround, the Braves are still feeling upbeat and positive and are looking forward to what awaits them in LA. In a press conference call earlier today, asked manager Walt Weiss about what he’s looking forward to when it comes to challenging the two-time defending World Series champions and he continued to reiterate just how good this team has been in 2026 when the odds are stacked up against them.
“You can call it David and Goliath and all that stuff, but you’ve got to go through the Dodgers if you want to get to the top of the mountain. You’ve got to go through them at some point. So it’s going to be a great challenge for us,” said Weiss. “Like I said all along, our guys have responded really well to some really tough challenges this year. This will just be another one. I’m expecting our guys are going to step up again.”
The catching duo of Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy also took questions in the conference call and they both appeared to be focused on the task at hand. “Having some success against them early is always nice. We’ve seen some of their pitchers, seen some of their arms, and gone up against a good team. So I think it’s just kind of going out there and playing our game and knowing that, if we play our game, that we can compete with them and beat them,” responded Baldwin when he was asked about what the focus needed to be on ahead of this series.
Murphy was also pretty confident as well — he stated that his confidence level is a “10” when he was asked about it and when he was asked about what he respected most about the Dodgers, he kept his response respectful while still expressing confidence in himself and his surrounding squad.
“I think they pitch pretty well. Obviously they have some phenomenal hitters in their lineup, but I would say we have the same strengths,” stated Murphy. “At the end of the day, it’s baseball. We’ve got to win 3 games out of 5, and I’ll take us over everybody.”
Meanwhile, we did get some updates about various Braves players who are currently missing due to injury and when we can expect them to come back. I asked Weiss about Bryce Elder’s status after throwing the Live BP and while Elder won’t be eligible for the NLDS roster, Weiss appears bullish on Elder’s chances of being available for the NLCS if the Braves can get past the Dodgers. “We’re hoping, if we advance, that Bryce is in that conversation,” explained Weiss. “He looks really good. It’s pretty amazing how far along he is after his surgery. We’re hoping to get through this round, and then that’ll be a topic of discussion.”
The same goes for Martín Pérez, who Weiss also stated that they’re hoping that they can get him back for the NLDS. Meanwhile, Lane Thomas was seen taking BP before both Game 2 and Game 3 of the Wild Card Series and the good news there is that Thomas could potentially be in line to return for the Dodgers series as a valuable right-handed hitting option.
“There’s a chance for Lane. He’s responded very well to treatment. We’ve upped his workload, and he’s passed all the tests,” said Weiss when he was asked about Lane’s chances of getting onto the NLDS roster. “He’s certainly in the conversation for this next round, which would be great because he’s a threat against left-handed pitching, and the Dodgers are loaded with left-handed pitching in the rotation and in the bullpen.”
There was also some good news concerning Tyler Mahle after he had what turned out to be a pretty big injury scare before Game 2 of the Wild Card Series. Apparently his abdominal is feeling good and he should be fine for the NLDS.
“Tyler’s doing well. The fact that he felt that thing in the first inning and ended up throwing seven innings that day and seven really, really good innings makes me feel good about the abdominal thing that he felt,” stated Weiss. “Getting treatment for it and all that stuff, but we feel pretty good about Tyler.”
The Braves still have some work to do in order to formulate a pitching plan that could once again neutralize the Dodgers lineup but as you can imagine, the team as a whole is feeling prety confident about their chances to not just do that but to perform at an all-around high level. The next step of the Postseason is here and while the Braves have a massive challenge ahead of them, Sean Murphy is right when he says that this team can hang with anybody.