Atlanta Braves Outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. will miss the rest of the season with an ACL tear, the team announced last night.
Acuña suffered a complete tear of his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the first inning of last night’s 8-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Acuña took a large lead to steal third, but turned back as Pirates catcher Joey Bart went to throw the ball to pitcher Martín Pérez, tearing his ACL. The injury was confirmed with an MRI after the game.
This will be Acuña’s second major knee injury at only 26 years old after he tore his right ACL in 2021, missing half of that season and a significant part of the 2022 season. The Braves won the World Series that year, but the team would certainly prefer not to try and do so with deadline acquisitions again. In addition to missing Acuña, Atlanta is also without star pitcher Spencer Strider, who underwent internal brace surgery on his right elbow earlier in the season, and the team has a number of players on its Injured List (IL).
“I hate it for the young men it affects more than us,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said after the game when asked about how the injuries have affected the team. “These guys love to play the game and when something happens like this, I hate it.”
While Acuña’s season hadn’t been as good as his previous one, where he was the NL MVP and the first player ever to hit 40-plus home runs and tally 70-plus stolen bases in a single season, his offensive production had picked up in recent games, with four of his extra-base hits coming in his last 31 at-bats.
His injury is another blow to a Braves team that is six games behind the Phillies and was supposed to be primed for another run at the World Series. Acuña will likely be replaced by Adam Duvall in right field and Atlanta may call up Forrest Wall from Triple-A Gwinnett to replace Acuña’s batting.
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