Reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. suffered a totally torn left ACL throughout as we speak’s sport, because the Braves introduced following an MRI examination tonight. Acuna will endure surgical procedure and miss the rest of the 2024 season.
Acuna was taking a lead off second base through the first inning of as we speak’s 8-1 Atlanta win over the Pirates when he faked a potential steal try with a transfer in direction of third base. Nonetheless, Acuna’s left leg twisted beneath him and he fell to the bottom in apparent ache. Talking with reporters after the sport, Acuna mentioned that he didn’t really feel a pop in his knee and expressed hope that may maybe miss only a month of motion if his knee was solely strained, however sadly the MRI has revealed the worst-case situation for the star outfielder.
That is the main knee surgical procedure of Acuna’s profession, as he beforehand tore his proper ACL on July 10, 2021. He was in a position to return to motion faster than anticipated and was again within the Braves lineup by the tip of April 2022, although it didn’t appear to be he was fairly again in full type, as Acuna batted a comparatively underwhelming .266/.351/.413 over 533 plate appearances that season.
With a full and regular offseason of prep and restoration over the winter of 2022-23, Acuna bounced again with not simply his greatest season, however probably the greatest all-around seasons within the historical past of the game. Acuna was a unanimous alternative as NL MVP after hitting .337/.416/.596 with 41 homers and 73 stolen bases (in 87 makes an attempt). This made Acuna the primary participant to ever have a 40-50 season, not to mention establishing the 40-60 and 40-70 golf equipment as well.
That kind of season would’ve been a troublesome act to comply with for anybody, however Acuna was hitting solely .246/.348/356 over 221 PA heading into what ended up as his last sport of the 2024 marketing campaign. Acuna’s barrel charges have been nonetheless above common however effectively beneath his profession norms, and each his house run whole (4) and his general energy numbers sharply dropped. He additionally reverted again to his pre-2023 free-swinging methods, after he was one among baseball’s hardest hitters to strike out final season.
We’ll now by no means know if Acuna might’ve shaken off this sluggish begin, as he’s dealing with one more brutally lengthy absence from the Braves lineup. Since Acuna suffered a whole tear in his ACL, his restoration figures to be on the longer facet of the same old 7-10 month timeframe for such surgical procedures. This might nonetheless put him in line to return by Opening Day 2025, although it appears fairly potential Acuna and the Braves would possibly discover an extended rehab this time provided that it’s Acuna’s second ACL tear, and since his earlier comparatively fast return in 2022 appeared to end in nagging knee soreness and his comparatively lackluster numbers.
Extra will probably be recognized about Acuna’s restoration timeline within the coming weeks and months, however the backside line is that the information is devastating on all fronts for Acuna, the Braves, and for MLB itself in shedding a signature star. Acuna nonetheless doesn’t flip 27 till December, and but whereas he has loads of time to proceed constructing on what looks as if a Cooperstown-worthy profession, it’s anybody’s guess if he’ll be capable of once more recapture his previous type after ACL surgical procedures on each knees.
The Braves overcame Acuna’s earlier ACL damage to launch an unlikely run to the 2021 World Sequence crown. Atlanta selected to double down on its try to remain within the playoff race by including 4 outfielders (Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario, Joc Pederson, and Adam Duvall) previous to the commerce deadline, and your entire quartet stepped as much as assist carry the workforce within the the rest of the common season and through the postseason. Soler even received World Sequence MVP honors and Rosario was the NLCS MVP, cementing Alex Anthopoulos’ daring choice to reload relatively than not hand over on the season within the wake of shedding Acuna.
With this in thoughts, it’s inconceivable to say that Acuna’s newest damage will doom Atlanta’s possibilities in 2024, even when president of baseball operations Anthopoulos now faces one other tough path to constructing a championship workforce. Although the Braves are six video games behind the Phillies for the NL East lead, Atlanta’s 30-20 file offers them a snug five-game edge for the highest NL wild card berth, and it definitely appears to be like like a return to the postseason within the playing cards. That is regardless of middling seasons from a lot of the Braves’ lineup (save Marcell Ozuna and Travis d’Arnaud), Sean Murphy lacking virtually your entire season with an indirect pressure, and workers ace Spencer Strider present process a season-ending surgical procedure of his personal with an inside brace process.
For the reason that Braves nonetheless went for it in 2021 regardless of a sub-.500 file in the beginning of August, they’ll clearly nonetheless be all-in on a title now given their team-record payroll and one among baseball’s most enviable collections of long-term expertise. Jarred Kelenic and Adam Duvall have been splitting time in left area so both might shift over to proper area in the interim, or Atlanta would possibly simply keep on with the left area platoon and look to seek out one other full-time alternative on the commerce market. Making an early strike in a commerce could possibly be pricey for Anthopoulos, but he would possibly look to copy 2021 by including a number of outfielders in considerably lower-tier offers.
If the Braves actually needed to get the band again collectively, Rosario (now with the Nationals) figures to be accessible as a deadline rental and Pederson could be the identical if the Diamondbacks can’t get again into competition. When it comes to inside assist, Atlanta’s tendency to not often relaxation its starters implies that Acuna, Kelenic, Duvall, Michael Harris II, and (with one inning in proper area) Forrest Wall are the one gamers who’ve gotten any work within the Braves outfield all season. Wall, J.P. Martinez, and Luke Williams are all at Triple-A and on the 40-man roster, plus Eli White and Skye Bolt are amongst a couple of different Triple-A outfield choices with Main League expertise. Newly-acquired utilityman Zack Brief has additionally gotten a while within the nook outfield throughout his profession and figures to be a part of this combine as effectively.
Whereas there will probably be no scarcity of commerce hypothesis surrounding the Braves heading into the July 30 deadline, the apparent reality is that there isn’t any method to really substitute Acuna, his 2024 struggles however. Dropping Acuna for the season places much more stress on Atlanta’s different bats to get on monitor, and on the membership’s pitching workers to proceed its strong work. The Braves’ try at a seventh consecutive division title is already in jeopardy because of the Phillies’ sizzling begin, and with out Acuna, will probably be way more tough for the Braves to navigate their method again to the World Sequence.
Picture courtesy of USA In the present day Sports activities Pictures
