Atlanta Braves are second on The Athletic’s ‘Wild-Card Era’ franchise rankings

Feb 6, 2023 - 9:00 PM

The Athletic released a franchise rankings for MLB teams during the “Wild-Card Era” Monday and the Atlanta Braves came in second behind only the New York Yankees. It is an interesting system that assigns points for World Series wins, playoff appearances and division titles.

The Braves of course have 19 playoff appearances over this span and two World Series titles. They also lost in the Fall Classic in 1996 and 1999. There are 17 Division Titles across that span and just one instance of three-straight 90 loss seasons that cost them points.

To be ranked No. 2 despite at one point losing 90-plus games in three consecutive years (-2 points) serves as a reminder of how dominant the Braves were in the NL East during the 1990s and through 2005. They are rolling again, with five consecutive division titles, a World Series win in 2021, a 101-win regular season in 2022, and a core eager to sign long-term extensions to stay together in Atlanta.

There is still a pretty sizable gap between Atlanta and the Yankees, but five World Series wins carries quite a bit of weight. An exercise like this can always be tweaked to change the results, but it does a pretty good job of showing the overall sustained excellence that the Braves have had since 1995.