NEWSLETTER
When healthy, Ronald Acuña Jr. has been one of the brightest stars in Major League Baseball. By and large, he has been healthy, with an ACL tear in his right knee in 2021 standing as his biggest loss of time.
After a scary moment just now in the Braves-Pirates game, though, you wonder if the unanimous 2023 NL MVP is about to miss a whole lot of time:
Ronald Acuña Jr. Goes Down
Hopefully that’s not as bad as it looked, because non-contact, body-shifting injuries are always scary. It looked like Acuña was trying to shuffle back toward the base after taking an aggressive secondary lead, but his leg completely buckled on him. Acuña was able to walk off the field with minimal assistance and a significant limp.
For what it’s worth, it appeared that Ronald Acuña Jr. was pointing to his left leg, rather than his right? So this isn’t necessarily related to the previous injury. Now 26, Acuña is having a slower start to his 2024 season than usual (.246/.348/.356/106 wRC+), but his talent figured to take over at some point. Now I would say there is a significant question.
Of note, when Acuña went down in 2021, the Braves acted aggressively in trades to bolster their outfield depth, and wound up going on to win the World Series.
UPDATE: It was indeed what it looked like it might be. Acuña tore his other ACL, and his season is over:
