Back Dated from November 2018.
When left fielder Ronald Acuna, Jr. was promoted to the majors just two weeks into the 2018 Major League Baseball season, word began to spread of how good this young kid was going to be for many, many, years ahead. And if this season had any indication of how this young player was going to be… just take a look at his 2018 stats. In 433 at bats, he hit .293, scored 78 runs, 26 homeruns, 64 RBIs, with an on base percentage of .366 and OPS of .917. To me, these statistics are outright spectacular. He is also an excellent outfielder and has speed on the bases. Manager Brian Snitker really didn’t know where to bat Acuna the first half of the season and then it him him, lets place Acuna leadoff. This just tripled his homerun total where he almost broke the leadoff record for most leadoff homers with five, and almost had eight straight games with a homer.
All this being said he was neck in neck with fellow rookie Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals in the Rookie of the Year ballot. Soto hit .292 with 22 homeruns and 70 RBIs. But the baseball world saw how much Acuna meant to the Braves team in which helped lead the Braves over the Nationals to take the 2018 NL East Pennant with a 90-72 record. Because of this, Baseball Digest awarded Acuna the unanimous 2018 Rookie of the Year award. Major League Baseball will name their Rookie of the Year award soon. Not only did Acuna just receive this honor, but he put the team on his back for game three of the divisional series against the Los Angeles Dodgers to help the Braves win their only game of this year’s postseason, but it was a memorable game with Acuna belting a granslam blast close to 500 feet to the left field seats.
Anything can happen in the years to come and players can go bad and only have one year wonders, but the pedigree of one Ronald Acuna, Jr says otherwise. I believe beginning next year he will be the focal point of this young team, and the way that Acuna goes, so goes the Atlanta Braves as long as Acuna sports the ‘A’ on his ball cap.
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