Braves’ Michael Harris II says All-Star snub adds ‘more gasoline in the fire’

Harris, ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Padres at Truist Park, is batting .301 with an OPS of .836. He hit his 18th home run in Monday’s win, a blast which gave him 59 RBIs through the 93 games he has played.

In his fifth full season with the Braves, Harris is well on his way to having a career year from the plate. The production began about this time last season, and it all stemmed from a simple yet impactful adjustment in his batting stance.

In working with Braves hitting coach Tim Hyers, taking some pointers from Braves legend Chipper Jones and getting nudged by agent Clarence Johns to make the change, Harris reverted to his old ways. And that was a good thing.

In high school, and throughout his time in the minor leagues, Harris held the bat high behind his head, almost slightly above his helmet. But when he got to the majors in 2022, the positioning of his hands ahead of his swing moved below his left shoulder.

Harris won the National League’s Rookie of the Year award in 2022 so the change in approach, even if it might have been unnecessary, paid immediate dividends. The seasons since, though, have been erratic and inconsistent at best. Part of the reason might have had to with the shift in batting stance.

“I think the past couple years it kind of overcorrected and put me in a bad place without me knowing,” Harris said. “I kind of put (my hands) a little bit down and it kind of countered what my problem was before. But it kind of helped me (at the time) create more space to be able to get to some balls I normally wasn’t able to get to. The past couple years it kind of overcorrected without me knowing. I just had to figure it out last year right before the (All-Star) break. I said, ‘Why not? Why not go back up?’ I’ve been doing it my whole life, and I made the change early in my rookie year, so why not have the confidence to go back now?”

It was a little more than a year ago, before baseball’s best came to Atlanta for the 2025 All-Star Game at Truist Park, that Harris went through with the decision to go back to his original stance. Then, on July 26, 2025, against the Rangers in Arlington, Texas, Harris went 4-for-4 with a homer, double, two triples and two RBIs.

It was also the day he knew things had clicked with his swing.

“He started doing it in (batting practice) and I could tell he was messing with it a little bit,” said Hyers, who also explained that when Harris’ hands started low they tended to creep back to a higher position naturally anyway. “And then he started doing it in the games — I just think he didn’t have to think about it. (The hands) were already loaded and in a good position.

“The moral of the story is it wasn’t rocket science or anything. It synced up the whole body. His hands were there and then his body just glowed. Now where the hands are at, we don’t even have to think about it.”

Harris is the only NL player with an average above .300, at least 18 homers and 59 RBIs. The Rockies’ Jake McCarthy is the only NL center fielder with a higher batting average. Only the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong has more homers from the center fielder position, and no NL center fielder has more hits. With 63 games left, Harris is on pace to soar past his career highs for runs, home runs, RBIs and hits.

His advanced metrics have been outstanding as well, with Harris being in the 98th percentile among major leaguers in expected batting average and 91st percentile in expected slugging percentage and hard-hit percentage. A small change has made a massive difference.

“My agent (Johns) let me know how comfortable I looked when I was in the minors when I did it,” Harris said. “And then, obviously, talking to (Jones) like a day or two after that, we were working in the cage and he was letting me know that it’s better to swing up to down than down to up. And in that year (2025), I was swinging down to up and missing a lot of balls and fouling fastballs straight back when I normally put some good contact on the fastball. It kind of let me know that I was in the bad spot and had to make a change, and I was willing to do it at the break.”

During this most recent All-Star break, since Harris was not included in the festivities, the 25-year-old said he spent time in Miami resting and relaxing. He also attended the World Cup semifinal between England and Argentina at Atlanta Stadium (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) on July 15. He has returned without missing a beat, starting the season’s second half by going 7-for-18 with a pair of doubles, a pair of homers and six RBIs. He has struck out only once in the first four games out of the break.

And, to add to all of Harris’ offensive prowess, he has fielding run value of 8 (third-highest in the NL among center fielders), an outs above average of 8 (only Crow-Armstrong is better among NL center fielders), a bWAR of 3.1 and fWAR of 3.6.

Credit: AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Credit: AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Where would this Braves team be without him, and how far can they go in the postseason if he continues to play like this?

“(Harris), I think, is just maturing as a player,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “He’s still going to chase (pitches) and that type of thing, but there’s less chase. And he hits the ball really hard. So, when the ball is in play, when you hit it that hard, there’s a good chance you’re going to get some hits.

“But I just think it’s a result of him just maturing as a player. He’s still a young kid. He’s been around here for a little while now, but (he’s) still a young player and learned some things and getting better and better and just kind of maturing before our eyes.”