WASHINGTON – Unlike some of his Major League Baseball peers, Matt Olson does not drain his blood, sip mountain spring water from a green glass bottle to avoid microplastics, nor measure every carbohydrate before sating his hunger.
“No, I’m not the guy,” he tells USA TODAY Sports, “who’s got a chef at home.”
Yet somehow, Olson has outlasted them all.
In this era of load management and general soreness the Atlanta Braves first baseman has not missed a game in nearly five years, stringing together a feat of longevity that can stand up to almost any era. After Atlanta’s 7-3 loss at Nationals Park on April 21, Olson has played in 806 consecutive games, second-longest this century and good health willing, soon stretching into the top 10 all-time.
Barring calamity or bad weather, Olson, on May 10 at Dodger Stadium, will dislodge Gus Suhr from 10th place all time with his 823rd consecutive game played. Eight days later, Eddie Yost would cede ninth place when Olson posts up at Miami.
And on Aug. 2, at home against Washington, the great Stan Musial would step aside for Olson’s 896th straight game and eighth place all time.
No, Cal Ripken Jr. won’t be losing sleep anytime soon: Olson would have to play every day well into the 2037 season to take down the Iron Man’s 2,632-game record. Yet Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s mark of 2,130 way back in 1995, long before planned days off and nouveau tweaks like oblique tears sent sluggers out of the lineup and onto the injured list.
This is 2026, the fifth consecutive season Olson figures to be one of the two to five players to play all 162 games. Few repeat the feat.
So why Olson, now 32, an age where the body is typically not impervious to a back 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 frame is putting together what could be another very special season.
Why Matt Olson is ‘star in this game'
Musial was a three-time MVP, Gehrig a two-time winner and Ripken one. They combined to win 11 World Series titles.
Olson can’t make such gaudy claims relative to the men of iron above him on the all-time list. Yet in 2023, the man hit 54 home runs and also led the majors with 139 RBIs. He accrued 7.5 WAR, because he is an excellent defensive first baseman.
Olson has finished first, second or third in defensive runs saved the past six seasons, that rangy, fungible frame that allows his arms to extend in the batter’s box also a fielder’s best friend when a ball is skipped in the dirt toward 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 could not approach his 54-homer season the following two seasons, yet was metronomic in his production, posting consecutive 29-homer seasons with 37 and 41 doubles and 98 and 95 RBIs.
This year, something special might be brewing.
Olson already has six home runs and ranks second in the major leagues with 16 extra-base hits. His OPS is back over .900, and the 16-8 Braves seem poised to rid the aftertaste of their 86-loss 2025 campaign, which broke a streak of seven consecutive division titles.
Olson takes pride in his consecutive games streak and believes there’s some correlation between his everyday availability and his production – as well as the Braves’ consistent excellence.
Their culture has long revolved around posting, with third baseman Austin Riley playing 159 or 160 games from 2021 to 2023. In 2022, Olson and shortstop Dansby Swanson were the lone major 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 year after the Braves’ 2021 World Series title, famously replacing Freddie Freeman at first and signing a $168 million contract extension after the trade from Oakland ensured Freeman’s departure.
After Series-winning manager Brian Snitker retired after 2025, the club poked its head around and gave Weiss, formerly the Colorado Rockies manager, another chance to run the show.
“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 needs much in that department.
'It's not easy'
Even as he approaches his mid-30s, Olson needs to ponder a little bit to acknowledge concessions to advancing age. Yet he knows greater treatment, more intensive self-care, perhaps even injury may eventually be inevitable.
He has a simple mental trick to keep that day further into the future.
“It takes me a little longer to get loose every day,” says Olson, who has 294 career homers, and whose career adjusted OPS of 135 ranks 14th among active players. “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 still belies the maintenance behind the scenes – the weight room work, the extra swings – that keeps Olson on the field and at peak performance.
“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 mental approach at the plate is just as crucial.
“He’s still trying to take the next at-bat,” says Baldwin, “and make it the most important of his life.”
Olson is yet another Brave who grew up in the Atlanta area, a laid-back dude very much in his comfort zone. Born one year before Atlanta’s first World Series title in 1995, he was well aware of the club’s standard of excellence, as their string of 14 consecutive division titles stretched deep into his childhood.
It became the standard and he expects no less – especially the bit about showing up, being available, doing 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.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB all-time consecutive games played list: Braves’ Matt Olson is modern Iron Man
