Former NY Mets coach hasn’t shared his best secrets with the Braves just yet

Through six games, the Atlanta Braves are 4-2 and only a game better than our New York Mets. It’s funny how a 4-2 record feels so much better than 3-3. How have they done it? The pitching has been superb with only a 2.00 ERA thus far. The hiring of Jeremy Hefner seems to be going well for a ball club impacted a lot by pitching injuries.

Hefner wasn’t the only Mets coach to leave the Big Apple for Atlanta. First base coach Antoan Richardson became one of the more popular members of the 2025 Mets. His ability to help turn Juan Soto into one the league’s best base thieves didn’t go unnoticed. His departure from the Mets this offseason was an early talking point which went forgotten only because of how many players left as well.

Richardson is in the same position with the Braves as their first base coach. Has he turned Matt Olson into a speed demon? It’s early but so far the Braves have been one of the league’s least efficient at stealing bases.

Antoan Richardson has yet to turn the Braves into a base stealing threat

They’ve stolen one base, a theft belonging to Ronald Acuna Jr. They’ve also been thrown out 3 times. It’s the worst ratio in baseball. The one stolen base is tied for a low. Only the Cincinnati Reds with 2 runners thrown out have more caught stealings than actual stolen bases.

The Braves didn’t try to steal much last year. They had 82 successes, 26th in baseball. Thrown out 25 times, it pales in comparison to what Richardson helped Mets base runners achieve.

The 2026 Mets stole 147 bases and were thrown out only 18 times all year. Was it all Richardson? The Braves are two series into the year and already they’re 1/6th of the way to where the Mets were in failed stolen bases.

Atlanta’s hiring of Richardson wasn’t meant to suddenly change the structure of how the team handled their time on the base paths. However, it should at least help them go from one of the league’s worst at stealing bases to somewhere closer to average, or at least that’s what the logic would tell you.

Stolen base opportunities will surely increase for the Braves as the season chugs along. Acuna is the one to watch most closely. He stole only 9 in 10 attempts last year in a 95-game season. He stole 73 in 2023 and 16 the following year when he was in 49 games. Coaches are rarely, if ever, hired solely to help out one player in one part of his game. The Braves should run a little more than they did last year at some point. Right now, the Richardson fear of making the Braves into a club of prime Rickey Hendersons just ain’t there.