OPINION
SPRING OPENER
Braves at Twins, 1:05 p.m. Saturday, 1340 AM, 103.7 FM
NORTH PORT, Fla. — Braves center fielder Michael Harris II still has the build that allows him to crank out home runs, run down deep fly balls and steal bases. But he looks slimmer overall. Maybe that’s the key for him to make it through a full season for the first time in three tries.
Then, maybe everyone can see how good Harris really can be.
“I’m really motivated,” Harris said. “The last two years with injuries (are) something I’ve never dealt with in my career. Felt like I was doing everything possible to get prepared and things just sneak up on you, and I guess you’ve just got to handle it. Now I know what to do, what not to do and I guess how to prepare.
“I’m just motivated to start the season the way I ended.”
Harris hit 11 home runs over the final 43 games of last season following a stint on the injured list. Only three players hit more during that span. Two of them won the MVP award in their respective leagues, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge. The tear to end last season was another glimpse of what Harris can do since he won the NL rookie of the year award in 2022.
That year, Harris hit .297 with a .339 on-base percentage. He displayed superlative power (19 homers among 49 extra-base hits), speed (20 stolen bases in 21 attempts) and defense. Harris’ 5.3 bWAR was better than all but 11 players aged 21 or younger in their debut season (400 plate appearances or more). It tends to stir the imagination when a player ends up on a list that includes Ted Williams, Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, Stan Musial and Albert Pujols.
Harris hasn’t been bad over the past two seasons: .768 on-base plus slugging with good defense. He just wasn’t available for nearly a quarter of the 324 games. A back injury kept him out for nearly a month in 2023. A hamstring injury sidelined Harris for two months in 2024.
Harris said he has “more to show.” He just needs to stay healthy to do it.
“That’s kind of the next step in his career,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s not his fault the way things happened. Looking at him, he looks in great shape. You can tell he’s been working hard in the offseason, and hopefully that leads to him being able to post for most of the season.”
It didn’t take long for the Braves to be sold on Harris, their third-round draft pick out of Stockbridge High in 2019. The team signed him to an eight-year, $72 million contract less than three months after they called him up from the minors. The front office had seen enough to skip his arbitration years and make Harris the center fielder of the future. At what could end up being a bargain price.
The injuries have prevented Harris from providing the Braves more bang for their bucks. He’s never seemed visibly frustrated about the setbacks, though he seems to be mystified about the causes and solutions.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Harris said. “I guess the position I play, it’s a lot more running than a lot of people. You can just try your best to recover and get back at it the next day. I don’t know a certain plan to take. I guess being more cautious, and I guess overpreparing.”
Does Harris think he’s overdone it working out?
“No, not working out too much,” he said. “Just making sure I stretch a little more or maybe see trainers to get me ready for games and making sure I’m good and loose. Drink a lot of water. The kind of stuff that I was already doing but kind of hoping it doesn’t sneak up on me again.”
So, then does he think the injuries have just been a matter of bad luck?
“No, I feel like it’s kind of a lesson learned,” he said. “I guess It’s better to do it now than later in my career when I probably can’t recover as fast. Now that I know earlier in my career, I can adjust accordingly and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Harris has what it takes to become the 48th player in MLB history to club 30 homers and swipe 30 bases. That may seem premature to say since Harris has never hit 20 home runs with 20 stolen bases in a season. But do the extrapolation. Harris produced all-time great numbers in 114 games as a 21-year old rookie. Isn’t 30-30 possible with more experience and a full season?
Harris contemplated the question and, as is his usual practice, answered humbly.
“I guess if I do what I know I can do, it’s possible,” Harris said. “I guess I can’t really put a number on what I expect myself to do because in baseball, you can do everything right and still get out and do everything wrong and still get a hit. You can’t really predict it.
“Thirty-thirty would be amazing. Can’t really put that as a legit goal, but that would be good.”
The main goal for Harris is staying healthy for a full season. The production will follow.
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