It took just three games for Jurickson Profar’s contract to go from looking like a steal to becoming an absolute nightmare, as the Atlanta Braves only real offseason acquisition was suspended for 80 games for violating MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

With Ronald Acuña Jr. out for at least the next month, the Braves will be rolling out an outfield of Michael Harris II and former prospects who have yet to reach their ceiling. With the team out to a slow start, the corner outfielders will need to make huge leaps in production to keep the club afloat.

Michael Harris II, Jarred Kelenic, and the remaining outfielders need to start hitting

The Braves outfield wasn’t entirely to blame for the team’s anemic offensive performance during the first series against the San Diego Padres in which the Braves were swept, but the four outfielders certainly didn’t help.

In San Diego, they went a combined 6-for-45 with one extra base hit and one walk. They slashed .133/.152/.200, good for a -7 wRC+ and -0.7 fWAR.

The now-suspended Profar was the only Braves outfielder to have an OBP above .200 (as well as the only Brave to take a walk), while Kelenic was the only Brave to have an extra-base hit. Harris II, who has shown flashes throughout his MLB career of looking like a star, has been horrible, to put it plainly. The centerfielder has slashed .067/.067/.067 and struck out in 33.3% of his plate appearances, good for a -0.3 fWAR.

With Profar out for the next 80 games and the recently signed Alex Verdugo still ramping up in the minors, Atlanta will need to give significant playing time to Bryan De La Cruz and Jarred Kelenic, who were expected to platoon until Acuña returned, with recently acquired Stuart Fairchild and Eli White also being options for the corners.

While it should be expected for Harris to eventually break out of his funk – after all, he’s been worth at least 2.0 WAR in every season he’s played, the other four outfielders do not have a history of success in the bigs.

De La Cruz has not been a positive WAR player since 2022, while Kelenic has had his few ups consistently wiped by more downs in the bigs. Both White and Fairchild have struggled to stick around.

Atlanta doesn’t need any of these four outfielders to turn into Barry Bonds; they don’t even need them to be 2018 Nick Markakis. But if the unless they start hitting at all, the Braves are in danger of quickly falling behind their NL East rivals.