The 2026 Braves team ZIPs projections came out on Monday. Last year’s starters plus Mauricio Dubon are below.
There’s not a ton of argue about here. These numbers look pretty realistic. I understand where he gets Dan Szymborski gets these numbers from. There are a few of these that don’t look right. I think the 1.1 hung on Dubon is pretty low. Some models are projecting his defense to completely disappear, and I don’t think that will be the case. You could argue that the rest of the shortstop options
will bring that number down. But in case, they wouldn’t be playing much anyway. I think Joey Wentz will come into play more next year as well. How much exactly, I don’t know. If I knew how injured the starting pitching would be, it would help.
But the numbers on Jurickson Profar and Michael Harris are curious. The model is very bullish on Harris again, just not as high as the 6+ number of last year. And the Profar number at 1.4 seems low. I want to believe Harris has a phenomenal year in 2026. And yes, Profar defends left field like a geriatric patient in concrete boots. But I think both land closer to 2 WAR next season.
So will Jurickson Profar have a better year than Michael Harris? Eh, man’s entitled to his opinion. It did happen last year.
