Ronald Acuna, Braves rookie phenom, suffers nasty knee injury

Ronald Acuna was the talk of the prospect world this season but suffered a nasty knee injury on Sunday against Boston.

The last thing anyone wants to see is a rising star hit a road bump. Coming into this season, the biggest prospect anyone could talk about was Atlanta Braves phenom Ronald Acuna. He was being compared to Kris Bryant in more than one way — as a potential superstar and someone the Braves were keeping in the minors on purpose.

Drama about when he would be called up stemmed from the idea that the Cubs kept Bryant down a little longer than they should have for the sole purpose of gaining extra years of club control on his contract. It looks to be paying off now, as Bryant is a superstar playing for well below his market value. The same logic applied to the Braves and Acuna.

All it really did was hype up his debut to levels that few baseball prospects experience. When he was eventually called up, Acuna began delivering and establishing himself as a name you need to watch.

That gives proper context to how awful it was when he left Sunday’s game against the Boston Red Sox after suffering a nasty knee injury. Acuna planted his foot wrong after sprinting past first base, and his knee bent the wrong way.

A word of warning, the video is pretty graphic:

Somehow, Acuna was able to walk off the field but his status is still up in the air. The team officially announced that he left because of a sore leg and back, which isn’t untrue. It just seems like we’re not getting the whole story.

Fans can take some relief in the idea that Acuna walked off the field, but we’ve seen players be able to walk away and look fine but have torn ligaments in their legs. For now, Acuna will be further evaluated but baseball fans everywhere are holding onto hope that it’s not as bad an injury as it looked.

Stay tuned for the latest updates on Ronald Acuna’s status as they come in.