EL NUEVO DIARIO, NEW YORK.- Like everything he does on a baseball field, Venezuelan Ronald Acuña Jr. is making his return from a serious ligament injury in his right knee look completely natural. But that doesn’t mean the way he’s returned to the big leagues isn’t amazing.
Not even a year has passed since Acuña was injured on July 10, 2021, causing him to miss the rest of the season and failing to win the World Series with the Braves. However, the 24-year-old is already playing at a superstar level again, helping the Braves get back on track after a slow start.
Acuña has a .368/.457/.737 slash line with four home runs during Atlanta’s current 11-game win streak. He had a relatively quiet game on Sunday, going 0-for-2 with two walks, but the day before he put his talent on display, leading off the action with a homer in the bottom of the first inning and scoring later from first base with a lob by Dansby Swanson that landed on a hit in right field.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen someone like that in my life, and look I’ve seen several Hall of Famers and others who are not Hall of Famers but who are there knocking on the door. You just have to say, ‘Wow,’” Braves manager Brian Snitker said after his club’s 10th straight win. “This guy is almost on another level with the kinds of things he can do.”
Snitker wasn’t the only one to express admiration for the dynamic outfielder on Saturday. NBA superstar LeBron James watched video of Acuna mimicking his classic ritual with the chalk powder after hitting his home run.
“Ayeeee!! Man, I love this boy,” James wrote on his Twitter account about the imitation of Acuna.
Acuña’s offensive line is a good indication of the impact he’s had so far, with a .311 batting average, six home runs, 11 stolen bases and a .943 OPS in his first 32 games. He carries a 1.6 WAR, according to Baseball-Reference.
But not everything says the numbers. Incredibly, all the elements that made Acuna a special player before his injury are back, as if they were never gone. (All stats below are through Saturday’s matchday.)
The power
Few players in the Majors can hit the ball as hard as Acuna, and it didn’t take long for the outfielder to show off that ability after his return on April 28. In his fifth game this year, Acuña doubled at 116.6 mph against countryman Carlos Carrasco of the Mets. It was the fourth hardest hit of his career and one of the fastest hits in MLB this season.
While a single event sample doesn’t typically tell much about a player, maximum exit velocity can be an important tool in evaluating power. To put it simply, no one hits a ball at 116.6 mph by chance. It takes real talent to hit a ball with such force.
Acuña also appears in very good company if we expand the sample considerably. Since he debuted in 2018, he has consistently ranked among the best in MLB in hard hit rate, percentage of balls connected at 95 mph or higher. And he’s also one of the best at hitting barrels, the balls hit with the optimal combination of speed and launch angle, which typically result in extra-base hits and home runs.
Here are the percentiles in each stat for his first four seasons. A 99th percentile, for example, means that the player in question is better than 99% of all baseball players on that particular stat.
Hard Hit Rate:
2018: 91ro
2019: 89no
2020: 99no
2021: 97mo
Potting rate:
2018: 93
2019: 95to
2020: 95to
2021: 99no
This season, his 52.4% hard hitting rate is in the 95th percentile, while his 18.3% pot rate is in the 98th percentile. His expected slugging percentage, based on quality of contact and strikeouts, is . 620, the best of his career and seventh best in the Major Leagues this year.
Discipline at the plate
Another reason Acuna is such a dangerous hitter is that he rarely throws at bad pitches. Since 2018, MLB hitters on average have sought 28% of pitches made to them outside of the strike zone. But in the case of Acuña, that average is 22.8%. This season? Just 22.7%, ranking at the 83rd percentile.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Acuna is a passive hitter. He’s aggressive in certain situations, as you can see from his first-pitch swing rate (34.3%) and zone delivery rates (69.3%), both of which are well above league average. And when the native of La Sabana decides to go for a pitch, good things usually happen.
The ability to make contact
We all know how much damage Acuna can do when he hits the ball. But contact, speaking in terms of how often the pitcher’s delivery hits, has always been his weakest tool. That hasn’t changed in 2022. His blank swing rate (swings in which he doesn’t hit the ball) and his strikeout rate both rank in the 19th percentile.
That said, both numbers have been improving lately, so at least they’re getting close to their career marks (27.8% blank swing rate, 25.9% strikeout rate).
As of May 31, Acuña had fanned the breeze on 31.5% of his swings and struck out on 32.3% of his plate appearances. As of June 1, those numbers are 27.3% and 14.3%, respectively.
Success opening in the lineup
Acuña has been one of the best leadoff hitters in the majors since the Braves made him their lineup starter in July of his rookie season. In fact, only George Springer has more leadoff homers (27) than Acuña (25) since July 20, 2018, Acuña’s first career leadoff game.
Acuna has continued to torment opponents in the first inning this year, hitting .448 with a 1.225 OPS in 30 plate appearances in that opening inning.
Speed
One would expect that someone returning to action after such a serious knee injury would take it easy. But not Acuna. He stole two bases in his first game of 2022 and has stolen 11 sacks of 14 attempts through his first 31 games.
Acuna’s sprint speed hasn’t fully returned — he’s at 28.2 feet per second after averaging 29.5 feet between 2018 and 2021 — but that could very well be because he’s deciding not to sprint if he really doesn’t need to.
The leg speed is still there, as evidenced by his six _bolts_, competitive runs in which he reaches speeds of 30 feet per second or more. One of those bolts came Saturday, when he scored from first on Swanson’s single, reaching 30.2 feet per second at one point along the way.
Acuna’s average sprint speed will likely continue to improve as the injury recedes further and further behind. Let us remember, once again, that he was injured less than a year ago.
And let’s also keep in mind that he is only 24 years old, so there is still room for him to continue polishing his game and improving as a baseball player. Considering how quickly he’s gotten back to his level after such a big mishap, perhaps we should presume he will.
