Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 15 hours ago
Matt Olson has had his fair share of hot streaks and slumps since donning a Braves uniform. But what he's showing in 2026 is a version that is among one of the most underrated players in baseball history when considering his sheer availability on top of the production that has him leading the NL in home runs.
Transcript
00:002-1 for Munoz.
00:02Olsen out to left center.
00:04Rodriguez is back.
00:06There's number 301!
00:08And what a time for it!
00:12The Braves now lead it in the ninth.
00:16Behind the power back of Matt Olsen.
00:20Added to the list of cooler things that have happened in 2026
00:23than anything that happened in 2025,
00:27they just continue to be clutch.
00:29I know Michael Harris had the game-winning go-ahead,
00:33pinch-hit home run on Friday night.
00:35They come back down 6-0 to the Rockies, win 8-6, sweep that series.
00:40Dropped the first game of the series against the Mariners
00:43after going up 4-0, and Richie was good until he wasn't.
00:47And then last night, pitcher's duel, man.
00:49Kirby and Elder were both going at it, doing really well.
00:51Elder looks fantastic for another start.
00:53And Matt Olsen gets after one in the ninth inning,
00:56and they win 3-2.
00:57They continue to be clutch.
01:00It's just finding ways to win, man.
01:02Finding ways to win.
01:02Like you said, the clutchness of these guys,
01:05especially a guy like Matt Olsen, man.
01:07I don't want to say he was – but he had some issues every now and then.
01:10And now he's coming through right now, having a great year.
01:15I don't want to say career year, because I don't know –
01:17you know more about the stats, but I'm assuming this is –
01:19Well, at 23, he hit 56 home runs.
01:21Yeah, but I –
01:21That'd be cool if he did that.
01:22He's on pace.
01:23Was he like on this pace when he hit the 56?
01:25I would have to.
01:26I mean –
01:26Somewhere in that area, okay.
01:27You got to be to hit 56, I think.
01:29But was it up and down?
01:30He kind of hot and cold, hot and cold?
01:31Yeah.
01:32I mean, either way.
01:33You know he's capable.
01:33Yes, and I think that's the biggest thing.
01:35Because you're a professional athlete.
01:37Your expectations – people expect you to be really good because you're a professional.
01:41But like anything, you go through your ebbs and flows of it.
01:44But right now, he is just on a heater right now, man.
01:47And it's really good to see.
01:48Because, I mean, you know, him being a local kid always,
01:52coming from Park, right up to where I'm from.
01:54And this dude, he's such a –
01:56If you ever see Matt Olsen, Matt Olsen's a big man.
01:59Yeah, no doubt.
02:00He's a big man.
02:01That's what we were talking about yesterday.
02:02But he's so laid back.
02:05He's such a laid back, chill dude.
02:07That's what I like about him.
02:08But, I mean, for him to be out there doing what he's doing,
02:10like you said, they needed that one so bad last night.
02:13And especially talking about the pitchers, though,
02:14for him to come through in the clutch the way he did.
02:16I mean, DeBond, obviously, Ozzie starts it off getting on base.
02:19And then the pop-up, I thought Ozzie was going to go on that short fly.
02:23I was like, oh, no, don't go.
02:26Don't go.
02:26But yet, you know, they were able to manufacture some runs.
02:29Get a win.
02:304-10 start today, you said, right?
02:32Yeah, so it's a 1-10 local.
02:33Yeah, 4-10.
02:34I was going to be quiet in there.
02:35I was thinking about that this morning.
02:36I was like, okay, because it was a getaway day.
02:38So I was like, what time are you going to play today?
02:40I was like, oh.
02:42Because I thought about it.
02:43I made my mind sick.
02:43They played a one today?
02:444-10 is great for us, though.
02:46Yes.
02:46I'm going home.
02:47That's perfect.
02:48I'll go home.
02:49I'll be 4-in.
02:51Brian Wu's good, too.
02:52So they're going to have to hit today.
02:55Matt Olsen leads the National League in home runs with 13, doubles with 15, runs with 35,
03:01RBIs with 33, flugging percentage, OPS, and then two other acronyms that I don't know.
03:05But that's a bunch of stuff.
03:08That's a bunch of stuff.
03:09I knew what all the first ones were.
03:10I don't know what these ones are.
03:11But that's okay.
03:12It doesn't matter.
03:12It doesn't matter.
03:12I don't need to.
03:13It doesn't matter.
03:14It's his first side, right?
03:15Oh, Bo's going to tell me.
03:16WPA?
03:19WP place above?
03:21I honestly don't know what WPA is.
03:23I know what F-War is.
03:24That's just war.
03:25But what's WPA?
03:28WP.
03:29Win probability added.
03:31What the?
03:31I do not know.
03:33Why?
03:33I know why people come up with stuff like that.
03:35Because they don't do nothing but sitting in my basement, clipping at them.
03:38Is war not enough?
03:40No.
03:40What the hell?
03:41Now, war is how many games you've single-handedly won.
03:44I think that's what you do.
03:45The only thing I'll disagree with you on that one with, Randy, is unfortunately these people
03:49no longer live in their mom's basements.
03:50These people are the presidents of the front office.
03:53That is true.
03:54People are not.
03:55My thing is like.
03:55The people that come up with these things are actually in charge of the game now.
03:58I would love to look at a baseball contract and see how much of those things are in the
04:02incentives or whatever.
04:03That's a great question.
04:03You know, his WPA.
04:05If he has this in the WPA, he gets an extra $200,000 or something like that.
04:10I would love to see one of the things.
04:11I don't know, man.
04:12That's a great question.
04:13Probably in there.
04:14I mean, I would guess.
04:14Why not?
04:15You try to put everything as a club to, because a club, obviously, they want to win, but they
04:20don't want to pay extra.
04:21Clubs hate incentives, and any player that's ever told you that whenever you've been close
04:25to an incentive, they don't, unless you got a head coach who has got, like, carte blanche
04:31in an organization, they will not try to get you your money.
04:34Yeah.
04:34They will not.
04:35Yeah, he's not playing in the second half tonight.
04:36Yeah, he will not.
04:37He needs one catch for a million bucks.
04:39That's what I love what Tom Brady had did.
04:40He's like, okay, we're going to call a play.
04:41I know we're up by 30, and it's less than 10 seconds, but we're going to throw this
04:45ball so he can get this extra one.
04:46Yeah, he gets $150,000.
04:47Yeah, dog.
04:48We're going to throw it to him.
04:49Yeah.
04:49All right.
04:50So with all that stuff Matt Olsen has done, this has started.
04:53And again, I think it is important with context.
04:55This is a Major League Baseball network conversation.
04:59They have to do the same hot take stuff that every other network does.
05:02So I think grain of salt with it a little bit, but the Matt Olsen Hall of Fame case has
05:06started.
05:07Here's Tom Verducci.
05:08Looking at, I think it's 1,259 games to get to 300 home runs.
05:11He's also got over 250 doubles.
05:13Only 12 players in baseball history, 300 homers, 250 doubles at that stage in his career.
05:19So this guy, as you said, plays every day, and he's putting up numbers.
05:23So at a really kind of a young age, you think, for the kind of thresholds he's hitting here,
05:28yeah.
05:28I mean, if he's going to hit 300, I never thought of him as a 300 hitter, but he's doing
05:32that
05:32this year, he can be an MVP as well.
05:34How old is Matt?
05:3532.
05:36He's 30?
05:36Okay.
05:36Yeah.
05:37All right.
05:37Right.
05:37So that's kind of the important number.
05:43He's right in the middle of the prime.
05:46Yeah.
05:46Right.
05:46Yeah.
05:47And he signed an eight-year contract extension?
05:49I don't know what it was.
05:50It was one of those big ones.
05:51Yeah.
05:52Okay.
05:54But so here, to me, here's the most important number for medals, and all that stuff is great,
05:57obviously.
05:58If he continues to play around this level, this pace, he'll probably get to 400 and 400
06:04with both of those numbers, which is pretty remarkable.
06:06He's at 819 consecutive games played right now.
06:09Actually, I think it's more.
06:09I think it's 822 now.
06:13He's about to be in the top 10 all time in terms of consecutive games.
06:17Damn.
06:18He's about 500 away from being in the top three of all time.
06:22How far from Cal?
06:23He's never going to get there.
06:25He's almost 2,000 games behind Cal Ripken.
06:27That's never going to happen.
06:28But if he can get in the top three, no one's ever going to catch Cal Ripken.
06:31No.
06:31He played 2,600 straight games.
06:33Who's second?
06:34Lou Gehrig played 2,100 straight games.
06:36And when Cal broke the record, that was the night where he ran around the warning track
06:39and all that.
06:39No one's ever going to touch those.
06:41But if Matt Olsen gets to third, and it's Cal Ripken, Lou Gehrig, Matt Olsen, he's going
06:46to the Hall of Fame.
06:47That's the number for me.
06:48He's not going to hit 500 home runs, probably.
06:51There's going to be certain things that, obviously, his number is going to be really, really good.
06:55Right.
06:55But if he's third all time in consecutive games played, because here's the other thing about
06:59consecutive games played.
07:01Nobody's even sniffed it since Cal.
07:05Now, obviously, Lou Gehrig did what he did in the 20s and 30s.
07:08Everett Scott is in third place right now.
07:10That was in the 10s and 20s.
07:12Steve Garvey was in the 70s and 80s.
07:14But pretty much Miguel Tejada as well.
07:16But by and large, these guys all did this generations ago.
07:20No one does this anymore.
07:22Yeah.
07:22I mean, I don't want to say it's by choice, the load management or something like that.
07:28I don't want to put it like, because you're playing damn baseball.
07:31You're not saying it's not a...
07:33Well, you said baseball weird.
07:34I know.
07:36I did.
07:37Kind of snooty, huh?
07:38Yeah, you did.
07:38Yeah, kind of snooty, right?
07:41That's okay.
07:42You played in the NFL.
07:43You're allowed to do that.
07:43We're snooty.
07:44I'm not allowed to do that.
07:45You're allowed to do that.
07:45Brains and stuff like that.
07:47You remember how Lou would lose...
07:48You're playing baseball.
07:49Yeah.
07:51It's not as...
07:53It's true.
07:53He's not tackling people.
07:54It's a lot of games, but it's not the physical...
07:56Well, the only games he missed when he was in Oakland, he missed like three games.
08:00Did he get sick?
08:01No.
08:01We're not going to hit the face with a ball.
08:02Yeah, he fouled a...
08:03No, not fouled.
08:04He accidentally deflected a ball off his eye in batting practice and literally couldn't
08:08open his eye.
08:09And he missed like two games.
08:10That's it in his whole career.
08:11Damn.
08:11I know.
08:12He's a stud, man.
08:12He's awesome.
08:13He's a stud.
08:14He's a stud.
08:14Glad he's here.
08:15Me too.
08:16Okay.
08:16Next.
08:17And we'll leave it at that.
08:17Yep.
08:18Yep.
08:18I'm glad he's here.
08:19We'll leave it at that.
Comments

Recommended