ATLANTA —Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. said he’s received unbelievable support from teammates, fans and countless others from around baseball and the rest of the sports world since the team announced Sunday that he had a complete tear of the ACL in his left knee and would require season-ending surgery.
Advertisem*nt
He said it’s made him emotional more than once.
“The amount of support has been absolutely incredible,” Acuna, 26, said through an interpreter Thursday while meeting with the media for the first time since the MRI revealed the extent of damage in his knee. “From teammates, the coaches, fans, the entire organization. Honestly, the amount of support has been overwhelming.
“All that support finds me crying at home by myself, and the reason that’s happening is because I feel like I’m the one abandoning the team. It feels like I’m the one letting everyone down. But there’s nothing I can do, just continue to work hard, continue to heal.”
Acuña smiled.
“You know,” he continued, “the last time this happened, the team won the World Series. That’s the goal right there.”
“All that support finds me crying at home by myself. The reason that’s happening is because I feel like I’m the one abandoning the team. It feels like I’m the one letting everyone down”
Ronald Acuña Jr. on the support from teammates, coaches & Braves Country after his injury🔊 pic.twitter.com/2tCCycspy4
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) May 30, 2024
As most Braves fans are aware, Acuña had season-ending surgery for a torn ACL in his other knee in July 2021. The Braves played sub-.500 ball that year into August before several trade-deadline outfield acquisitions contributed to a torrid stretch run that didn’t end until Atlanta won the World Series, its first title since 1995.
Despite the Braves’ current offensive malaise and 13-17 record in the past 30 games, including a 3-1 loss Thursday that gave the Washington Nationals a 3-1 series win at Truist Park, Acuña is among those who believe they are fully capable of winning the World Series.
“We haven’t hit,” said manager Brian Snitker, whose Braves have batted .221 in the past 30 games and scored two or fewer runs in 12 of those, leaving him searching for answers. “I don’t know, honestly. If I knew, I’d tell them and we’d correct it. It’s not that easy. Just got to keep grinding, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Advertisem*nt
Acuña believes the Braves, who had five hits Thursday including none in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, will get going soon. The 2023 National League MVP’s resounding performance in the leadoff spot triggered Atlanta’s juggernaut offense last season but had struggled this season like everyone else in the lineup not named Ozuna.
“They don’t need me to win the World Series,” said Acuña, echoing what Spencer Strider said of himself after the Braves’ 2023 MLB wins and strikeouts leader had season-ending elbow surgery two weeks into the season.
Acuña will have surgery Tuesday in Los Angeles. It’ll be performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the renowned orthopedic surgeon who operated on Acuña’s right knee in 2021. Acuña said he would stay in Los Angeles to rehab for 4 to 6 weeks, as he did after the previous procedure, then rejoin the Braves in Atlanta to pull for them the rest of the way.
Acuña returned from the previous surgery in under 10 months and was activated from the injured list in late April 2022. But he struggled with recurring soreness and inflammation in the knee throughout that season. He wasn’t at full strength until 2023, when he was otherwordly, winning the MVP award by a unanimous vote after a historic performance that included 41 home runs, a majors-leading 73 stolen bases and a league-best 1.012 OPS.
Acuña wept more than once during the grueling rehab after the first surgery, when he was anxious about whether he’d ever be the same player.
“He loves to play, and it’s tough because he does know what he’s in for,” Snitker said of Acuña facing a second ACL rehab. “I feel worse for him than I do for us. Because I know how much the kid loves to play baseball, and it’s a lot of work to get back when you go through an injury like that.
“It takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication, determination and mental strength in order to come through that. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again, and he’s young and strong. This will be just a little blip in a really, really great career when he looks back on it.”
Advertisem*nt
Acuña said he’s better prepared to handle this rehab and won’t be concerned about making it back. He knows he can, and says he’ll aim to return better than before, but he will also be patient, leaving it entirely up to the team’s trainers and doctors to determine when he’ll be ready next season.
“I kind of know what to expect,” Acuña said. “It’s painful, I’m not going to dance around it. The rehab is probably the most painful part, more painful than the operation. But there’s nothing else to do but take it, work hard and move forward.”
He added, “Sometimes these things are blessings in disguise. Sometimes you’ve got to lose yourself to find yourself, and I think that’s how I’m trying to approach this. I’m going to take everything in stride. It’s another opportunity. Who knows, maybe I can come back and win another MVP.”
Unlike the last time he went through this, Acuña now is a husband. He and his longtime girlfriend Marie Laborde were married Aug. 31, 2023, outside Los Angeles, hours before he hit a grand slam that night against the Dodgers to become the first player in MLB history with 30 homers and 60 steals in the same season.
They have two young sons, Ronald and Jamal. Acuña said having them around while he’s rehabbing will mean a lot.
“Even the other day when I was at home and found myself crying, I look over and they’re laughing,” he said. “They don’t know any better, they’re kids. But just being able to see them laugh like that and just have family around, it’s what you’re doing it for and that’s what helps you get through it.”
In 2021, Acuña blew out his right knee on the Friday before the All-Star break, and the Braves were three games under .500 and five games out of first place on Aug. 1. General manager and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos acquired four outfielders that July to rebuild a depleted unit before the trade deadline. Atlanta won 16 of 18 from Aug. 3 to Aug. 22, going from third to first with a 4 1/2-game lead.
Advertisem*nt
The Braves led the rest of the way to win the NL East title before surging through the postseason. All four outfielders acquired in those July trades — Joc Pederson, Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall — played substantial roles.
Duvall is back with the Braves and has shifted from a left-field platoon (with Jarred Kelenic) to right-field duties to replace Acuña, who was injured Sunday at Pittsburgh when he planted his foot on an aborted base-stealing attempt and had his knee buckle. Kelenic is getting a chance to play every day in left.
It remains to be seen how long Anthopoulos will wait for increased production from this outfield before considering one or more moves to boost a slumping offense. The Braves might look for offense and a starting pitcher before the deadline.
#Braves lose 3-1 to the Nationals, both in tonight's game and in the 4-game series. Yes, they dropped 3 games in the series and have lost 17 of 30, scoring two or fewer runs 12 times in that stretch and three or fewer runs 17 times. The offense has sputtered more than a month.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) May 31, 2024
It’s been a surprisingly long hitting malaise, considering the Braves basically have the same group who led the majors in most major statistical categories in 2023, including 307 home runs to tie an MLB single-season record.
Snitker, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer and Braves players say it’s the kind of slump most teams go through at some point during a season, and that theirs is magnified because it’s early, and because so many players have slumped simultaneously. Last year, Atlanta still had five or six players producing at a high level if two or three were struggling at any given time.
“That covered it up,” Seitzer said. “And then (previously slumping hitters) would pick it up and three more guys would go (cold). That’s what I felt all year was like, and then you get to the end and it was like, ‘Wow, it was magical.’ But it didn’t feel like everybody was clicking at the same time.”
This season, it’s felt as if no batter has clicked for an extended period other than Marcell Ozuna, who leads the NL with 16 homers and 49 RBIs, and has a .998 OPS that’s third in the majors behind Aaron Judge (1.034) and Shohei Ohtani (1.010).
Advertisem*nt
Ozuna has twice as many homers as the Braves’ next-highest total (Matt Olson’s eight) and 20 more RBIs (Olson’s 29). Besides Ozuna, the only other Brave with an OPS as high as .760 is catcher Travis d’Arnaud (.809).
“It’s kind of been normal for the other years, really,” Seitzer said, referring to Braves’ slow offensive starts in recent seasons. “I don’t remember us getting off to a blazing start (in the past). … I feel like every year, we were scuffling and grinding till mid- or end of May, June.”
It hasn’t helped that the Philadelphia Phillies have played so well to open a 6 1/2-game lead in the NL East over the six-time defending champion Braves, who finished 14 games ahead of Philadelphia each of the past two regular seasons, then lost to the Phillies in the NLDS both years.
After losing Acuña, the Braves hoped the returns of catcher Sean Murphy and third baseman Austin Riley on Monday might spark the lineup. They played nearly two months without Murphy, who strained an oblique on Opening Day and went two weeks without Riley, who was beginning to emerge from his slump before straining a side muscle.
But in the four-game series against the Nationals, the Braves hit .206 with two homers, eight walks, 43 strikeouts, two stolen bases, a .575 OPS and nine runs.
“You just hope maybe that a two-out hit somebody gets relaxes everybody,” Snitker said, “because I know guys get in the try-too-hard mode.”
Riley said, “I feel like we’re putting too much pressure on ourselves trying to make things happen. And we know that as a group, that’s never the recipe.”
Ozzie Albies said the Braves want to win it all for Acuña. But first, they’ll need to start hitting and beating the likes of the Pirates and Nationals, who’ve won the past two series against the Braves. The Oakland A’s arrive for a three-game series at Truist Park starting Friday.
(Photo of Ronald Acuna Jr. from May 1: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
