The Atlanta Braves enter play on Tuesday five games out of a playoff spot — not where they wanted to be by Memorial Day but by no means a catastrophe either.

As former All-Star Jason Kipnis said during an appearance on Foul Territory, the Braves' 0-7 start to the season may have masked how good they really are.

“A lot of teams will have a losing streak at some point in the season, whether it’s three, four, five, six, seven games it doesn’t matter. Or your might just go 2-8 in 10 games. It happens,” he said. “The fact that they did it the first seven games of the season was an overreaction, a panic set in. This team’s gonna be there in the end. They’re too good not to be.”

Since that disastrous start, which Kipnis points out came against playoff teams in the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta is 25-20. They haven't set the world on fire, but they've righted the ship to the point that they are a couple trade deadline additions away from being right where they hoped to be at the beginning of the year.

Led by Ronald Acuna Jr., the Braves are getting healthy

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One major factor that should give Braves fans optimism is that the team is finally getting healthy. 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. made his season debut last week. In 13 plate appearances, he already has two home runs, a double and a walk.

“Now they’re starting to get a little bit healthier with Acuna and [Spencer] Strider, all them back,” Kipnis added. “They’re getting their feet. I don’t think anybody wants to see them get going. Everybody’s kinda hoping this is a real thing. It’s not. They’re gonna be there at the end.”

As for Strider, he made his return from the Injured List on May 20 and was ineffective against the Washington Nationals, allowing four runs on six hits in 4.1 innings. But that's just one game and he gets the ball again Tuesday night as Atlanta kicks off a three-game set in Philadelphia.

Strider was never going to come off the IL and immediately be back in his 2023 form, when he struck out a whopping 281 batters, so he will just look to take a step forward against the Phillies.