MLB trends: Braves find a shortstop, Brice Turang finds his power and Pirates find a new way to disappoint

September has arrived and we are into the season's stretch drive. Less than three full weeks remain in the regular season and there are still plenty of races to be decided. Division races, wild card races, award races, and more. Here now are three trends to keep an eye on as we get into the most meaningful games of 2025.

Braves finally address shortstop

This has been an extremely disappointing season for the Braves and there are several reasons for that. Pitching injuries, first and foremost. At one point, their entire Opening Day five-man rotation was on the 60-day injured list. For a team not blessed with great depth, that was a killer. That said, offensive underperformance has held Atlanta back as well.

The shortstop position has been has been dire for the Braves since Dansby Swanson left as a free agent. Orlando Arcia had a fine first half in 2023 and was even voted into the All-Star Game. His performance slipped in the second half though, and he was replacement level in 2024. Arcia was so bad earlier this year that the Braves released him on May 25.

Nick Allen took over at shortstop and did his usual no bat/great glove thing: 52 OPS+ while ranking fifth among all players with 17 outs above average. There's something to be said for reliably catching the ball (Arcia was unable to do that the last two years), but the Braves couldn't move forward with Allen as their full-time shortstop, and they knew that.

On Sept. 1, the Braves got a head start on their offseason shopping and claimed Ha-Seong Kim off waivers from the Rays. And in his second game with Atlanta, Kim did something Allen and Arcia failed to do all season: hit a home run. To put that more clearly, it was not until Kim on Sept. 3, in Atlanta's 140th game of the season, that a Braves shortstop hit a ball over the fence.

With Kim's home run, every position on every team has now produced at least one home run in 2025. Braves' shortstops were the last to get on the board. The second-fewest home runs by a position is four by Pirates' third basemen. Shortstop does not have an especially high bar offensively, but still, the Braves were getting nothing from the position most of the year.

The Braves absorbed the remainder of Kim's $13 million salary with the waiver claim and they presumably did so with the understanding he would likely exercise his $16 million player option for 2026. Offseason shoulder surgery and other nagging injuries limited him to 24 games with Tampa, and so far only a handful with the Braves. Kim is not really in position to cash in this winter.

Perhaps the Braves and Kim will tear up the player option and work out a new contract (multiple years with a lower annual salary, that kind of thing). That's another topic for another time. For now, Kim is giving the Braves a little punch from shortstop, albeit too late to change their 2025 outlook. The waiver claim was about 2026. They jumped the line to get next year's shortstop.

Turang's power binge

If there's one criticism to made about MLB's best team, it's that they don't hit many home runs. The Brewers went into Tuesday's game against the Rangers ranked 20th in baseball in 154 home runs. Only the Padres (127) had hit fewer among likely postseason teams. You can win without homers -- the Brewers have shown that this year -- but they do help. Sometimes you need that a big swing.

An unlikely power source has emerged for Milwaukee these last few weeks: Brice Turang. The Platinum Glove-winning second baseman hit six home runs in 2023 and seven home runs in 2024. He had 17 home runs for the season going into Tuesday, including 11 since Aug. 1. Only Juan Soto (13), Rafael Devers (12), and Kyle Schwarber (12) have more among NL players during that time.

"I've always knew I had some pop," Turang said during an MLB Network interview after being named NL Player of the Month for August. "It was just kind of tapping into it."

Almost without fail, whenever a player experiences a sudden power surge, particularly in the middle of the season, it's because he's started to pull the ball in the air more often. The MLB average on pulled fly balls is a .593 batting average and a 1.325 slugging percentage. We all love aesthetically pleasing opposite-field singles, but pulled fly balls are the most productive batted ball.

The MLB average pulled fly ball rate is 16.7%. Turang was at 7.6% last year and is at 7.3% overall this year, but check out his month-by-month split:

• April: 2.1%
• May: 4.6%
• June: 6.8%
• July: 7.4%
• August: 17.9%

Turang is first and foremost a speed guy (he stole 50 bags in 2024), though he's always shown some sneaky good top-end exit velocities. It is in no way a coincidence Turang had the best power month of his life when he pulled the ball in the air more than ever. He finally turned those exit velocities into over the fence power and became a more dangerous hitter.

The Brewers have not won a postseason series since 2018 and let's not kid ourselves here. Getting ousted in the first round again after being the best team in baseball during the regular season would render this year a failure. That's just the way it goes. The Brewers are still light on over-the-fence power overall, but Turang's binge gives them more in that department. In October, that one big swing can decide a series. Milwaukee learned that the hard way in Game 3 of last year's Wild Card Series.   

Pirates wasting elite run prevention

The Pirates took a 64-80 record into Tuesday night's series opener with the Orioles, meaning they're on pace to finish with a worse record in their first full season with Paul Skenes than they had without him in 2023 (76-86). Pittsburgh's ownership and front office have failed the organization and the fan base every which way. Great city, great ballpark, great fan base, awful decision-makers.

As poorly as they've played overall this season, the Pirates are an elite run prevention team. They went into Tuesday averaging only 4.10 runs allowed per game, sixth fewest in baseball. Skenes certainly helps but it's not all him. He's thrown only 14% of their innings. I'll give the Pirates this: they seem to have figured out pitching development. Position player development? Not so much.

The Rays, who were 71-72 going into Tuesday and ranked ninth in run prevention, are the only other team with a losing record in the top 18 in runs allowed per game. Every other team with a losing record is in the bottom 12 of baseball in runs allowed per game. The Pirates are an extreme outlier. They're legitimately excellent at preventing runs and bad at winning games.

The last team to finish under .500 while finishing top six in run prevention is the 2014 Padres, who went 77-85 despite allowing the fourth fewest runs per game. From 2015-24, the top six teams in run prevention each year averaged a .586 winning percentage, which is a 95-win pace. Usually teams that keep runs off the board this well win a lot games. Not the 2025 Pirates though.

Blame the offense, of course. The Pirates went into Tuesday ranked dead last in runs scored per game (3.62), home runs (102), and slugging percentage (.351). Bryan Reynolds has regressed, Oneil Cruz has failed to launch, and recent top 10 draft picks like Henry Davis and Nick Gonzales have underwhelmed. The pitcher development is excellent. The hitter development is a disaster.

Building around pitching is risky because pitchers get hurt. Unless the Pirates spend (significantly) on free agents soon, something owner Bob Nutting is very unlikely to do, I'm not sure how they're supposed to seriously contend before Skenes hits free agency after the 2029 season. The Pirates need an offensive overhaul top to bottom. This simply isn't good enough.