On April 29, 2021, Matt Olson hit himself in the face with a baseball in the batting cage at Tropicana Field. A rare jump on the L screen left him with the kind of shine an athlete would normally get from going 12 rounds with Marvin Hagler, but luckily no lasting damage. By May 2, Olson had recovered enough to return to the lineup, and has not missed a game since.
Olson’s streak now stands at 820; Not only is this the longest hitting streak in baseball, it just passed Nellie Fox for the 11th longest hitting streak in MLB history. Assuming he avoids another hit in batting practice, Olson will finish the season with the eighth-longest hitting streak of all time. Only seven players in MLB history – and 10 in all major league sports in North America – have played in 1,000 straight games. Olson will be 11th before the All-Star break next year.
This is undoubtedly an impressive feat of athleticism. Over the past five seasons — and in fact, nearly a decade, since his early days in Oakland — Olson has been good enough to claim a starting position on a major league roster. And in good groups, often. He’s taken care of his body enough to last (huge, even for a first baseman) 162-game big league season, and he’s avoided injuries from impact and wear and tear. (Olson was hit by 30 pitches during his run, and escaped with his hamate bone intact.)
As much as I love Olson’s commitment and dedication, I have a small opinion about iron man streaks: If you never miss a game, you’re probably hurting the team.
Olson has been training six days a week every season for five years, and while he doesn’t beat a pitcher or center fielder, he still works hard enough to need rest. Not much, but skipping the odd day game after a night game could help him conserve his energy for big times later in the year.
Since Olson joined the Braves in 2022, Atlanta has won 100 regular season games twice. But the Braves’ postseason record is 2-8, and they have failed to win a single round of the playoffs since their World Series title in 2021. Olson is hitting .250/.357/.417 with two homers in those 10 games, which is good in a vacuum but below his usual standards.
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In 2023, the Braves won 104 games with an unusually stable lineup: All nine starters played at least 100 games. Eight of them played at least 138 games, and in addition to the irreplaceable Olson, both Austin Riley and Ronald Acuña Jr. they played 159 games each.
This is, from soup to nuts, one of the best regular season teams I can remember. The Braves not only won the division that sent three teams to the playoffs, but won it by 14 games. Olson was unbelievable, hitting a career-high 54 home runs and hitting .283/.389/.604. This is one of those seasons where the Bears revert to the old numbers: Olson scored 127 runs and drove in 139. If Acuña hadn’t run away with the MVP trophy, Olson would have been in the running for the award himself.
Olson followed that season with back-to-back 29-homer campaigns. Acuña and Riley both battled injuries as Atlanta’s win total dropped to 15 from 2023 to 2024, and another 13 from 2024 to 2025.
The more tired the Braves looked, the more convinced I was that I was right all along: Bossman gives you all that PTO for a reason, and you’re only hurting yourself if you don’t take it.
Six weeks into the 2026 season, I find myself… to be punished. The Braves are 26-12, and Olson has been the best player in the National League without exaggeration. He’s hitting .301/.388/.671 with 13 home runs in 38 games, and if there are hints of fluke lurking in his stat line, they’re not particularly concerning.
He is swinging the bat more than in any previous season for which bat tracking data is available. And you’re more connected than ever (in and out of the area) and out at a much lower price since 2021.
As you might suspect from a hitter with a 50-homer season on his resume, Olson has always had a lot of raw power. His long lenses and good swing, he never showed the power or violence that you can find among the true exiting monsters of the velo – even a good remnant like Shohei Ohtani. Olson hits the ball hard, and puts the ball in the air a lot, as well as many of his fly balls out of the yard.
In 2023, Olson posted a HR/FB% of 27.8%, second only to Ohtani among professional hitters. Last year, that number dropped to 16.0%, which is 38th in the league. This year: 23.6%. Here is one of the 55 fly balls Olson hit this year.
Usually, when I link a video to a post there’s some educational value — I want you to see something specific to understand the point I’m making. Not so here. I just thought you might be interested in seeing a guy put a baseball on the roof of the Cumberland Mall.
I’m not entirely sure what has changed. According to Baseball Savant, he’s standing on his feet a few inches closer than last year, with a stance that’s a few degrees wider. If you compare the home runs from the top to last season, the difference is more subtle.
Whatever the cause, Olson is making better swing decisions and connecting with the ball in more detail than in previous seasons. Usually, when we say that a hitter is “hot,” it’s less of an acknowledgment of luck. Heat, usually abnormal, has more to do with what happens after contact than before.
Not really here. Olson is hot because he sees the ball well, and gets the right results. This is a hitter whose down year included 30 odd home runs and a wRC+ in the 120s; if he gets a game of fireball “NBA Jam”, this is what it looks like.
It’s also worth noting that Olson and the Braves also had a very easy competition. Atlanta has played 11 different opponents so far this season; none of them currently (as of Thursday afternoon) have a winning record. The Braves played six games against the Phillies while they were in the bullpen. Olson also has four homers in seven games at Coors Field and Chase Field, two of the most in the league.
Still, Olson has the second-highest ISO in the National League. He’s killing the ball right now, at a rate that wouldn’t be noticeable even if the Braves had been playing the Westish College Harpooners all year.
In conclusion: If Olson hits like this, the iron man streak will take care of itself. No sane manager would take this bat out of the lineup, even for one game.
