Since turning 25 in April, Austin Riley has done a lot more than just legally rent a car for the first time. He’s made an All-Star team, emerged as a legitimate National League Most Valuable Player candidate, signed the longest and most lucrative contract in Atlanta Braves history and cemented himself as the Braves’ long-term answer at a position whose previous long-term star, Chipper Jones, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He has also established himself as the latest link in a player development chain that dates back to 1940, when Hall of Famer Warren Spahn signed with the franchise — then dubbed the Boston Bees. Spahn played with Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, who played with Hall of Famer Tom Glavine, who played with Jones, who played with Freddie Freeman, who played until last season with Riley.
The chain is impressive enough that there are multiple degrees-of-separation connecting Riley with franchise icons and Hall of Famers. Eddie Mathews, a Hall of Fame third baseman like Jones, began playing with the Braves in 1952 and was teammates with Hall of Famer Henry Aaron as well as Niekro — who played with former NL MVP Dale Murphy, who played with Glavine, who played with third baseman Terry Pendleton, who won the MVP when the Braves began their modern run of success by going worst-to-first in 1991 and remains in the organization as a roving instructor.
“Those guys that came before us, it’s a big reason why I wanted to be here for the long term,” Riley said Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, where he sat at the locker in the visiting locker room occupied over the previous decade by Freeman. “To be able to see those guys early on in my career (and be) around the Hank Aarons and the Chipper Jones, the Dale Murphys — Terry Pendleton comes around every now and then — that’s just so much baseball knowledge and a lot of positives that have been around this game. I’ve been pretty fortunate to be in this spot that I’m in.”
Austin Riley is the first #Braves third baseman with consecutive 30-homer seasons since… Chipper Jones had four straight from 1998-2001.
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) August 9, 2022
Riley should be in the spot until at least 2032 after signing a 10-year extension worth $212 million last week. He inked the lucrative contract in the midst of a torrid stretch — Riley is hitting .341 with 22 homers, 56 RBIs and a 1.074 OPS since May 23 — that’s vaulted him into the NL MVP race. With +450 odds at DraftKings and BetMGM, Riley is ranked second behind St. Louis Cardinals Paul Goldschmidt (-135 DraftKings, -140 BetMGM) at both books and ahead of former MVPs such as Freeman and Mookie Betts.
“Those guys are the elite of the elite and I’m trying to match my game with them everyday as much as possible,” Riley said. “You can’t take this game for granted and it’ll knock you on your butt as quick as you let. So I’m just trying to learn everyday. If you’re not getting better everyday, you’re taking a step back.”
Well the Braves were up, then down, and now they're back up after Austin Riley hit his 30th homer of the season out onto the street. MVP chants breaking out at Fenway, too
— Battery Power (@BatteryPowerSBN) August 9, 2022
Riley credited the benefit of a full season in 2021 as well as the work he’s done with beloved Braves third base coach Ron Washington as well as Jones for his improvement on both sides of the ball. Riley hit .232 with 26 homers, 76 RBIs and an OPS of .736 — 14 percent below the league average — while playing just 131 games from 2019-20 due to a May call-up in 2019 and the pandemic-shortened schedule a year later.
He’s hitting .301 with 63 homers, 181 RBIs and a .919 OPS — 43 percent better than the league average — while playing in 270 games since the start of 2021. Only teammate Dansby Swanson (271 games) has appeared in more games in that span.
“Just getting that confidence of being in there everyday — I think I played 160 games (last year) so you just learn how to make those adjustments,” Riley said. “Whether it’s ‘I don’t need to take BP today, I need to give my legs a break’ — you learn so much about yourself.”
Per Baseball Reference, Riley has generated 1.6 in defensive WAR while playing mostly third base the last two seasons, up from the -0.8 defensive WAR he posted while bouncing between the infield and outfield corners in 2019 and 2020.
“One of the things that I took from (Jones) is just really trying to cut angles and ‘Wash’ preaches it as well,” Riley said. “Chipper’s more the mental side. One of the biggest things I’ve picked up from him is the mental side of dissecting pitchers, trying to be a couple pitches ahead. If he throws this, what are the chances he’ll throw that again? That game inside the game.”
Austin Riley’s defense gets me going
— SportsTalkATL.com (@SportsTalkATL) April 13, 2022
With almost two months left in his age-25 season, Riley already has 15 more homers (89), just three fewer extra-base hits (198) and almost the exact same OPS (.862) as Jones produced through his age-25 season in 1997. Jones — who went hitless against the Houston Astros the day Riley was born on Apr. 2, 1997 — finished the 1997 season with an .863 OPS.
Going year-to-year with the Braves and maintaining his production over the next three seasons would have put Riley in line for an even bigger payday upon hitting free agency in 2025. But like the Florida-born Jones a generation earlier, Riley — a native of Mississippi who has relatives in Georgia — traded some market value for comfort to remain with an organization that’s got an uncanny track record when it comes to drafting, developing and maintaining superstar-caliber players.
“The organization itself means so much to me — that’s who I got drafted by, they’ve been good to me, my wife’s got family in Atlanta, I’ve got some family in Atlanta, so it just made a lot of sense,” Riley said. “And I just really didn’t picture myself playing anywhere else.”
