The Braves gave Ronald Acuña the day off on Wednesday, and I don’t think anybody can blame Brian Snitker’s decision, given Acuña’s recent results at the plate.
#Braves' Acuña has hit .209 with 2 homers and a .583 OPS in his past 33 games, after hitting .316 w/ 6 homers and a .950 OPS in his first 31 games.
In 17 games after July 4, he's hit .186 (13-for-70) with 2 doubles, 1 homer, 4 RBIs, 8 walks, 21 strikeouts, .257 slug%, .526 OPS.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 27, 2022
It’s undoubtedly been the roughest slump of Acuña’s young career. However, there’s no reason to believe this will continue for long. Ronald Acuña Jr. will be perfectly fine. He’ll be better than fine. Let’s put this recent stretch into perspective.
Injuries
People seem to forget that around this time last year, Acuña suffered a brutal ACL tear. Whether you’re a world class athlete or not, an ACL tear is not an injury that can just be brushed over. It is something that takes time to fully recover from. But beyond just the ACL, Acuña has dealt with a multitude of seemingly endless ailments since returning to the field. It’s no shock that he hasn’t been able to find a rhythm.
Luck
Acuña’s .214/.327/.612 slash line (with only one long ball) in the last 28 days is unsightly. However, the underlying metrics show that despite the lack of visible success, the 24-year-old has been mashing. Acuña has been obliterating baseballs right at defenders. Seemingly every game, he has a hard-hit line drive out or a warning track flyout. As he starts to fully recover from his injuries, more of those deep flyouts will leave the ballpark. Acuña’s 90th percentile HardHit% on Baseball Savant points to how well he’s been hitting, and his other peripherals suggest positive regression will eventually come in a big way.
That’s not something I would be celebrating about when his Baseball Savant page looks like this. It’s just a matter of time. pic.twitter.com/akfePZhnjJ
— SportsTalkATL.com (@SportsTalkATL) July 27, 2022
Umpires
With last night still fresh in our minds, can we just appreciate how atrocious some of these calls against Acuña have been? I’m not even going to say anything else about it:
As if the first call wasn't bad enough, Rob Drake makes an even worse call on the second pitch against Ronald Acuña Jr. pic.twitter.com/arstRqiaP2
— Baseball GIFs (@gifs_baseball) July 27, 2022
Ground Balls
If there’s one thing that sticks out about this season, it’s Ronald’s ground ball rate. 47.8 percent of the balls in play by the superstar are on the ground. That’s not a recipe for success, but it’s also something that will regress towards his career averages eventually. There are worse problems to have, particularly a high strikeout rate. At least Acuña is putting the ball in play, and doing so with a high exit velocity.
Closing
Stop the criticism of Ronald Acuña. Baseball is a game of peaks and valleys, and he’s just in one of those valleys. That doesn’t change the fact that he is a generational talent. I understand that he’s set the expectations high, but there needs to be a level of grace for every ballplayer — even Acuña is allowed to slump.
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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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