As the Atlanta Braves are preparing in spring training for the upcoming 2026 season, one player who is ready and eager to get back out on the diamond is star Austin Riley. With Riley getting back to baseball shape in the Braves' spring training, he would reflect on his tumultuous 2025 season.

Riley would undergo season-ending core surgery in August of 2025, as he played in 102 games last season, where he recorded a .260 batting average to go along with 16 home runs and 54 RBIs. The 28-year-old would be asked about the mental aspect of being injured and would be honest in explaining why “it sucked.”

“You know, I pride myself in playing every day and posting every day and being a guy that walks in the clubhouse and knows that my teammates can count on me to show up,” Riley said, according to MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. “So it was tough. Felt like I turned into a mad scientist sitting on the bench, just deep-diving my swing and dissecting every inch of it.”

“But I think, you know, you try to take the positives out of everything, and take a step back and look back at, you know, the success I had in '21, '22, '23, and just try to mirror that swing, and, you know, I feel really good with my swing where it is right now,” Riley continued.

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Braves' Austin Riley looking to get back to his numbers from 2021 to 2023

Riley is ready to go and come back to the usual production that he is used to, as he mentioned from 2021 to 2023, where he played at least 159 games, hitting over 30 home runs in each season. In 2024, he would play 110 games, leading to the 2025 season, where his year was derailed by the aforementioned injury.

Furthermore, Riley is looking to be part of helping Atlanta improve after finishing with a 76-86 record, which put them fourth in the NL East, behind the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Mets, and the Miami Marlins. He can prove he's back to his usual self during spring training and on Opening Day on March 27 against the Kansas City Royals.