Updated April 22, 2026, 12:21 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON – Unlike a few of his Major League Baseball friends, Matt Olson doesn’t drain his blood, sip mountain spring water from a inexperienced glass bottle to keep away from microplastics, nor measure each carbohydrate earlier than sating his starvation.
“No, I’m not the guy,” he tells USA TODAY Sports, “who’s got a chef at home.”
Yet one way or the other, Olson has outlasted all of them.
In this period of load administration and common soreness the Atlanta Braves first baseman has not missed a recreation in practically 5 years, stringing collectively a feat of longevity that may stand as much as virtually any period. After Atlanta’s 7-3 loss at Nationals Park on April 21, Olson has performed in 806 consecutive video games, second-longest this century and good well being prepared, quickly stretching into the highest 10 all-time.
Barring calamity or unhealthy climate, Olson, on May 10 at Dodger Stadium, will dislodge Gus Suhr from 10th place all time together with his 823rd consecutive recreation performed. Eight days later, Eddie Yost would cede ninth place when Olson posts up at Miami.
And on Aug. 2, at house towards Washington, the good Stan Musial would step apart for Olson’s 896th straight recreation and eighth place all time.
No, Cal Ripken Jr. gained’t be shedding sleep anytime quickly: Olson must play every single day properly into the 2037 season to take down the Iron Man’s 2,632-game report. Yet Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s mark of two,130 means again in 1995, lengthy earlier than deliberate days off and nouveau tweaks like indirect tears despatched sluggers out of the lineup and onto the injured list.
This is 2026, the fifth consecutive season Olson figures to be one of many two to 5 gamers to play all 162 video games. Few repeat the feat.
So why Olson, now 32, an age the place the physique is sometimes not impervious to a again twinge or a hamstring seizing?
“He’s got a baseball body that’s almost ideal,” says Braves manager Walt Weiss, the bench coach when Atlanta acquired Olson from Oakland in March 2022. “He’s long and rangy. He’s not wound tight.
“Very loose and whippy and all those things and obviously can withstand the rigors of this schedule. He’s a special one.”
And that 6-4, 225-pound body is placing collectively what might be one other very particular season.
Why Matt Olson is ‘star in this game’
Musial was a three-time MVP, Gehrig and Ripken two-time winners. They combined to win 11 World Series titles.
Olson can’t make such gaudy claims relative to the lads of iron above him on the all-time list. Yet in 2023, the person hit 54 house runs and in addition led the majors with 139 RBIs. He accrued 7.5 WAR, as a result of he is a wonderful defensive first baseman.
Olson has completed first, second or third in defensive runs saved the previous six seasons, that rangy, fungible body that enables his arms to increase in the batter’s field additionally a fielder’s greatest pal when a ball is skipped in the filth towards first.
“The defense doesn’t get the glory that it should – he’s as good a defensive first baseman that you’ll find,” says Weiss. “His wingspan creates a lot of outs for us, with the way he stretches. That’s not something people are locked into, but we notice those types of things.
“He’s a stud. He’s a star in this game.”
Olson couldn’t strategy his 54-homer season the next two seasons, but was metronomic in his manufacturing, posting consecutive 29-homer seasons with 37 and 41 doubles and 98 and 95 RBIs.
This 12 months, one thing particular may be brewing.
Olson already has six house runs and ranks second in the main leagues with 16 extra-base hits. His OPS is again over .900, and the 16-8 Braves appear poised to rid the aftertaste of their 86-loss 2025 marketing campaign, which broke a streak of seven consecutive division titles.
Olson takes delight in his consecutive video games streak and believes there’s some correlation between his on a regular basis availability and his manufacturing – in addition to the Braves’ constant excellence.
Their tradition has lengthy revolved round posting, with third baseman Austin Riley taking part in 159 or 160 video games from 2021 to 2023. In 2022, Olson and shortstop Dansby Swanson have been the lone main leaguers to go 162.
“The best part of it is no matter how your game goes – great game, awful one – the next day is going to be a good one,” says Olson. “A lot of guys are penciled into the lineup every day. We’re not a big platoon squad and I think it’s good for everyone.
“You know you’re getting four or five, six at-bats every day. It’s going to help you see more pitches and make those bad games particularly easier to flush and know you’ve got a new chance at it tomorrow.”
Continuity is a franchise theme. Olson arrived one 12 months after the Braves’ 2021 World Series title, famously changing Freddie Freeman at first and signing a $168 million contract extension after the commerce from Oakland ensured Freeman’s departure.
After Series-winning supervisor Brian Snitker retired after 2025, the membership poked its head round and gave Weiss, previously the Colorado Rockies supervisor, one other likelihood to run the present.
“I think Walt is somebody who kind of respected the chain of command a little bit,” says Olson. “Being bench coach, he was there to help Snit, do his role. Now that he’s the manager, that role and voice expanded a little bit.
“We all don’t have enough good things to say about Walt. Love the way he goes about stuff. Gets us ready, keeps us ready to play.”
Not that Olson wants a lot in that division.
‘It’s not simple’
Even as he approaches his mid-30s, Olson must ponder slightly bit to acknowledge concessions to advancing age. Yet he is aware of higher therapy, extra intensive self-care, even perhaps harm might finally be inevitable.
He has a easy psychological trick to maintain that day additional into the longer term.
“It takes me a little longer to get loose every day,” says Olson, who has 294 profession homers, and whose profession adjusted OPS of 135 ranks 14th amongst energetic gamers. “But I try to stay out of the training room as much as possible. I’ve seen people who need it every day to go play, and I feel like that becomes people’s baselines a little bit.
“I want to save that for when I need it. There have been times, there’s going to be times you’re going to need it – you’re going to need to get work done.”
That nonetheless belies the upkeep behind the scenes – the burden room work, the additional swings – that retains Olson on the sector and at peak efficiency.
“The routines he has behind the scenes to keep his body in shape and play the amount of games he does and be as locked in, it’s pretty impressive,” says catcher Drake Baldwin. “Not many people are doing it like he is. It’s all a testament to how much he loves the game and how he goes about it.
“Working out, keeping the body right, to be able to play 162 for however many years he’s done it straight, it’s not easy.”
And the psychological strategy on the plate is simply as essential.
“He’s still trying to take the next at-bat,” says Baldwin, “and make it the most important of his life.”
Olson is one more Brave who grew up in the Atlanta space, a laid-back dude very a lot in his consolation zone. Born one 12 months earlier than Atlanta’s first World Series title in 1995, he was properly conscious of the membership’s normal of excellence, as their string of 14 consecutive division titles stretched deep into his childhood.
It turned the usual and he expects no much less – particularly the bit about exhibiting up, being accessible, doing all of your job.
“Since I was a kid, it was the way the Braves went about it,” says Olson. “You got your guys, and the team expects you to play. Fans expect you to play. You should expect to play.
“Ever since I came over here, it’s been exactly that. And I think it’s great for everybody involved.”
