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An MRI revealed that Ronald Acuna Jr. has some irritation in his proper meniscus, in line with a number of Braves beat writers (together with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Justin Toscano). Acuna is predicted to be prepared for Opening Day, although he’ll go to Dr. Neal ElAttrache in two days for additional examination of his knee.
Every thing appears precautionary at this level, and naturally Acuna and the Braves need to be as cautious as potential given Acuna’s harm historical past. Acuna suffered a torn proper ACL in July 2021 and didn’t return to motion till late April 2022, with Acuna’s comparatively down numbers (.266/.351/.413 over 533 plate appearances) in the course of the 2022 season indicating that he wasn’t fairly again to one hundred pc after the lengthy layoff.
Evidently, Acuna was again in full kind for an all-timer of a 2023 season. The outfielder hit .337/.416/.596 with 41 homers and league-leading totals in hits (217), runs (149), and stolen bases (73). With the latter statistic, Acuna grew to become the primary participant in baseball historical past to hit 40 homers and steal at the least 50 bases in a season. Acuna was a unanimous selection as NL MVP final November, and the Cooperstown trajectory is in view contemplating that Acuna remains to be solely 26 years previous.
Extra will probably be recognized about Acuna’s standing after his seek the advice of Monday, and it may very well be that the meniscus situation certainly simply prices Acuna a little bit of Spring Coaching time. There stands an opportunity that Acuna is perhaps positioned on the 10-day injured checklist to start the season if Atlanta feels he wants a bit of additional ramp-up time to make up for the misplaced spring work, which may open the door for Forrest Wall, J.P. Martinez, Eli White, or non-roster invitations Jordan Luplow or Luis Liberato for some early-season taking part in time. The Braves’ lineup is so stacked that lacking even a celebrity of Acuna’s caliber wouldn’t be an enormous downside within the quick time period, however clearly the group wants Acuna absolutely prepared because it pursues its second World Collection title in 4 years.
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