ATLANTA — Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. became the fifth member of baseball’s 40-40 club in 2023 and finished his spectacular season as the first and only member of the 40-70 club, racking up 41 homers and a majors-leading 73 stolen bases.
But anyone expecting Acuña to storm back from a second knee surgery and try to join Shohei Ohtani next season in the 50-50 club — in which the Dodgers superstar recently became the first member — probably should alter expectations. Acuña sounds like he’s carefully weighed the risk and reward of stealing bases on surgically repaired knees.
“After having undergone both surgeries that obviously (have) taken a big toll, I’m just going to be patient and really try and focus on my hitting and my fielding and anything that I can to help the team win,” Acuña said through an interpreter Wednesday at Truist Park.
Acuña stole eight bases in as many attempts in his first 14 games in 2022, in his first season back after surgery on his right ACL the previous summer. But with lingering pain in the repaired knee an intermittent issue, he stole 21 bases over his remaining 105 games and was caught 11 times in that period.
He wasn’t nearly the player for most of 2022 that he’d been before surgery, and wasn’t even remotely close to the power-hitting, base-stealing leadoff beast of a player that Acuña would be in his NL MVP season in 2023, when he was another year removed from surgery and fully recovered mentally and physically.
He’s learned from what happened after the first surgery.
“I think going into next season, I’m just going to try and be a little bit more patient compared to the last go-round,” Acuña said, reiterating what he said to some Braves writers last month in Anaheim, Calif., during a Braves series against the Angels. “And in regards to running and stealing those bases, I don’t know that I’ll be able to steal the 40 or 50 bags as easily.
“I think that’s still to be seen, but yeah, I don’t know how that’s going to play out.”
So, for at least the foreseeable future, Acuña is unlikely to set his sights on another 40-70 season like the stunner he crafted last year, when he also set career-bests with his .337 average, majors-leading .416 OBP, and NL-leading 1.012 OPS and 171 OPS+ in 735 plate appearances, also a personal best and league leader.
Acuña got all 30 first-place votes from writers for the BBWAA’s league MVP award, and also won MLB player of the year in voting by his peers in the Players Choice Awards.
It should be noted Acuña did that while playing 157 games in the outfield and two at DH. Ohtani, not pitching this season while recovering from elbow surgery, has served exclusively as Dodgers DH.
Acuña spent the past three months rehabbing in Los Angeles after surgery, so it would’ve been hard to avoid hearing about Ohtani’s exploits. Acuña had a diplomatic response when asked about Ohtani’s season compared to his own.
“I think they’re both really special seasons,” he said. “And I mean, 50-50, gosh, I would love to be able to do that one day. But really, all my respect to Ohtani. Tip of the cap.”
In the recent debate over which season was greater — Ohtani hit .303 with 53 homers, 125 RBIs, 56 steals and a 1.028 OPS in 155 games before Thursday — some point to the additional demands Acuña had in 2023 playing the outfield in the elements, rather than sitting in the dugout and taking swings in the indoor cage to prepare for at-bats.
When another reporter tried to pin him down by asking which was the better season, Acuña smiled.
“That’s a good question,” he said, “but I think that’s a debate for you guys to talk about.”
There’s only one opposing player Acuña pulls for openly: his younger brother, Mets shortstop Luisangel Acuña, 22, who debuted Sept. 14 and has been terrific filling in for injured star Francisco Lindor. The younger Acuña hit .375 with three homers and an 1.175 OPS in his first 10 games, including a single Tuesday against the Braves, before the rest of the three-game series was postponed by inclement weather. The teams will play a doubleheader Monday, provided those games still are necessary.
In the Braves’ dugout, Ronald Acuña Jr. cheered when his brother singled, but also when Braves center fielder Michael Harris II robbed the younger Acuña of another hit with a sensational diving catch.
“I’m just so extremely proud of my brother,” Ronald Acuña Jr. said. “To be able to see him in the big leagues is just a dream come true for me and our whole family. And obviously my team has my full support no matter what, so seeing my brother play against us, it’s weird and almost causes nerves. Because he’s up at bat and you want him to do well, but then you don’t want him to do well against us. So it’s very conflicting emotions, but it’s great.”
Acuña is coming back from June 5 surgery on his left ACL, which he tore when he planted the leg to retreat to second base after aborting a stolen base in a May 26 game. He is running and working out with high intensity, but there’s a difference between doing all of that in a controlled environment and playing baseball, which requires twisting, planting the feet, making hard turns, and accelerating and decelerating on a dime.
When he tore the right ACL on July 20, 2021, he returned nine months after surgery, on April 28, 2022, a few weeks sooner than expected. He was back playing every day in the outfield sooner than the team’s original plan, and playing day games after night games and after travel days, all sooner than planned.
The Braves started slow that year and Acuña persuaded them to let him play a more rigorous schedule sooner than had been mapped out, saying he felt fine and the knee wasn’t giving him problems. But it did, at least eventually, and for a while he kept saying it was fine.
This time, he plans to listen to the doctors and trainers, not try to persuade the Braves to let him return ahead of schedule. He also said he’ll be honest about his knee, rather than play through discomfort as he did in 2022, even though he didn’t feel confident rotating on the repaired knee, which diminished his power.
After hitting .320 with five homers, 10 steals (11 attempts) and a .945 OPS in his first 27 games off the injured list in 2022, Acuña hit .250 with 10 homers, 19 steals (29 attempts) and a .712 OPS over his last 92 games.
He needed some rest days as that season wore on to reduce inflammation in the surgically repaired knee — which was not unexpected in the year after surgery, especially with him playing and running so hard from the time he returned.
If he were to follow a similar approximate nine-month timetable in his return from left ACL surgery, Acuña could be ready to play games in early March, in the first weeks of spring training. A slightly more conservative timetable, with a month added to the previous timeline, would have him ready around the first couple of weeks of the regular season.
“I think that’s the plan, yeah,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said this week of Acuña possibly being ready near the start of the 2025 season. “I think it’s similar to what it was a couple of years ago. I’m sure they’ll keep an eye on him and things like that, but, God, I hope so. That’s my plan.” (Snitker laughed.)
Braves president of baseball operations/GM Alex Anthopoulos also said two months ago the expectation was that Acuña would be ready around the start of the season. But Anthopoulos and the Braves have stressed that there’s no strict timetable and that it would depend on how Acuña feels and what the medical staff recommends.
For now, Acuña said, “I feel incredible. Right now it’s just a question of time, letting everything heal how it’s supposed to. As far as how good I feel, I’d love to go out there right now and start playing. But we just have to be patient and let everything happen sort of how it goes. But physically, mentally, I feel great. Just waiting until I’m fully back.”
Does he think he’ll be ready at or near the start of the 2025 season?
“I think it’s more about how I’m feeling, and what the doctors and trainers are saying,” Acuña said. “And when they deem me ready to go. But like I previously said, I’m just going to be a little more cautious and careful with it. If the team and the doctors tell me I’m ready to go, and I go out there and I don’t feel good, if something’s bothering me, then I will say something. I’ll speak out.”
(Top photo of Ronald Acuña Jr. in May: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
