In late May, the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves were scuffling. They were under .500 and already well behind the New York Mets in the National League East. It was time to make some changes.
So on May 28, they called up 21-year-old center fielder Michael Harris II from Double-A Mississippi. It was an aggressive promotion -- Harris had played just 43 games above Class A ball -- but the Braves were desperate for help, with center fielders Adam Duvall and Guillermo Heredia combining to hit .186 with just two home runs thus far. At the minimum, the Braves knew Harris could patrol center field, and they had liked what they had seen from him during spring training.
The Atlanta rotation was also struggling at the time, with a 4.51 combined ERA. So just two days after Harris debuted, another rookie -- hard-throwing rightie Spencer Strider -- made his first major league start. Strider had excelled in a multi-inning relief role, posting a 2.22 ERA across 24.1 innings, pitching as many as four innings in a single outing. In 2021, Strider had fanned 153 batters in 94 minor league innings; it was time to see how his power stuff translated to the rotation.
The Braves entered June at 23-27, famously 10.5 games behind the Mets. With Harris and Strider in their new roles, they took off. The team went 78-34 the rest of the way, a half-game better than the Dodgers for the best record in the majors, and swept a three-game series against the Mets in the final week of the season to wrap up their fifth straight division title.
Plenty of Braves brass and fans would have predicted another division title was coming out of spring training. But even the most optimistic members of the front office wouldn't have predicted the success of Harris and Strider -- or the contracts both would eventually sign later in the season.