It was a tough sight to watch for Atlanta Braves fans when Ronald Acuna Jr. dropped and rolled around in pain. It was vivid for most because they were in glee that this squad was demolishing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then, the joy of their fans was quickly sucked out whether it was in PNC Park or at home. Brian Snitker and Eddie Perez could not quite fully illustrate the pain that their star player was going through. But, they did their best to give their faithful some truthful, albeit tough-to-swallow, updates.
Ronald Acuna Jr. grimaces in pain
A huge concern when Ronald Acuna Jr. went down against the Pirates was that he suffered yet another ACL injury. Fortunately, the star himself and the Braves organization ruled that possibility out. But, that does not mean that this current ailment is not serious. He is likely going to miss a month of action and the Braves will have to make do without him.
How terrible was the injury? If the live footage of Ronald Acuna Jr. rolling in the ground was not enough, Eddie Perez gave some insight into it. The Braves coach unveiled that this could look like his injury way back in his 2018 rookie campaign, via David O'Brien of The Athletic.
“Yeah, something like that 2018 injury. He thinks he’s going to miss the same amount of games. They put him on the 10-day injured list. Now, so he’s going to do an MRI tonight and see the result… He saw the catcher throw the ball back to the pitcher very slow and he was timing it out so he could go to third. Yeah, he got scared a lot because he felt the pain in the beginning, but then it’s been going away for a while,” Eddie Perez said about what the Braves star communicated to him.
Brian Snitker even went on to drop his insights on the tough situation that his star was going through after their eight-to-one win against the Pirates.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t even do me any good to comment on it until we get him looked at. I don’t know how bad it is until we get it looked at. Like I said, it’s very concerning. When he went down like that, you think the worst,” the Braves manager declared.
A tough season with the Braves
Expectations grew bigger for Ronald Acuna Jr. after snagging the 2023 NL Most Valuable Player award. After all, he did record 73 stolen bases which led the MLB, and a 1.012 OPS which topped the NL. Add the fact that he also hit .337 alongside 41 home runs and it made for a historic run with the Braves. The next focus was to retain that production and make a run for the World Series.
But, all of that slowly kept crumbling. Acuna got his right knee inflamed and that just so happened to be the same part where he had his ACL repaired. This may have bogged down his comfort and performance. It is largely evident because he only hit 0.250 alongside four home runs and a below-average .716 OPS. Obviously, there is still a lot of time for him to notch these numbers back. But, it might not come as easily because he will be away from the Brian Snitker and Eddie Perez-led squad.
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