Ronald Acuña Jr., an outfielder with the Atlanta Braves, may be remembered as the 2023 season’s mascot. Acua is baseball’s top action hero in a year that will be known for rule revisions intended to encourage more action.
Acuña has an MLB-best 55 stolen bases and 27 home runs
Acuña is the front-runner for the NL MVP award ahead of current teammate Matt Olson and former colleague Freddie Freeman (because of the Braves). Through 119 games, he has an MLB-best 55 stolen bases and 27 home runs. He is on course to join the 35/75 club because he is the only player with even 25 home runs and 25 steals so far this season.
Yahoo Sports reported that Acuña has drawn comparisons to Rickey Henderson, Eric Davis, and Joe Morgan, three of the eight members of the 25/50 club that Acuña has already entered, thanks to the growing power-speed counters. However, that highly entertaining lens could be too limited to give a true picture of the leadoff dynamo’s offensive omnipotence.
Acuña is batting.338 and has the highest on-base percentage in MLB in 2023 (.423). In terms of FanGraphs WAR, he is second only to Shohei Ohtani in the MLB. Additionally, Acuña’s 2023 brilliance is perched atop a significant advancement that might elevate his performance with or without the addition of speed.
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Acuña has also lost the ability to be pitched
Flipboard reported that Acuña has reduced his strikeout rate by half, specifically. If anything like this can mostly go unreported, it has. The 25-year-old superstar, a five-time All-Star and previous Rookie of the Year, had a career strikeout percentage of 25.3% entering this season. This was slightly higher than league average but still well within the normal range for a power hitter who also draws lots of walks. Acuña’s K% has decreased to 12.2% this season, ranking sixth out of 140 qualified batters. Unsurprisingly, he outperforms everyone before him on that list in terms of walk rate, on-base percentage, and home runs.
The manager of the Atlanta Braves, Brian Snitker, explained that Acuña’s seismic strikeout rate change was the result of experience, as a young, “electric” athlete learning how to deal with the difficulties of the major leagues more reliably.
However, this is not just a routine sign of adulthood. The decrease in Acuña’s strikeout rate between 2022 (23.6%) and 2023 (12.2%) is not only the highest season-to-season drop since Ryan Klesko in 1998 (minimum 400 plate appearances each season; best in MLB this year).
Acuña has also lost the ability to be pitched, even with a typical amount of strikeouts serving as a release valve. When asked how he might plan a sequence to retire his teammate, Braves catcher Sean Murphy simply shook his head and grinned.
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