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Braves Place Ronald Acuna on DL: Fantasy impact

By Bill Pivetz

BOSTON, MA - MAY 27: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves is helped off the field after an injury at first base in the seventh inning of a game against the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park on May 27, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - MAY 27: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves is helped off the field after an injury at first base in the seventh inning of a game against the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park on May 27, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /
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The Braves will be without their top prospect Ronald Acuna for a minimum of 10 days. How should fantasy baseball owners react?

The Atlanta Braves have lost ground in the National League East, with only a game lead on both the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals. Things will get a bit difficult for the offense as they and fantasy owners will be without outfielder Ronald Acuna for at least 10 days. What do owners do to replace his production?

According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, and others, Acuna only suffered a sprained ACL in his left knee. The Braves will place him on the 10-day DL and re-evaluate his status after that. Even though he’s only a month into his MLB career, Acuna has been an integral part of the Braves’ early 2018 success.

Acuna finally got the call to the majors on April 25 and came out swinging a hot bat. He posted a .293/3 HR/6 RBI/14 K/4 BB line in his first 14 games. However, since then, Acuna’s been in a bit of a slump. Over his last 15 games, he’s hitting .237 with two homers, seven RBIs, nine runs and a 23:6 K:BB ratio.

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The 20-year-old outfielder suffered the knee injury as he was husting down the first base line and promoting he was safe to the umpire. The left knee looked to hyperextend past the point of no return, especially when you look at this video. Though, it seems that Acuna avoided all serious injury.

Until he’s ready to return, the Braves will roll out an outfield trio of Preston Tucker, Nick Markakis and Ender Inciarte with Ryan Flaherty and Dustin Peterson on the bench.

All three of the Braves outfielders are owned in a significant number of leagues, so you will have to look outside of the Atlanta organization for a replacement.

One replacement option is Jurickson Profar. While he is hitting .250 over the last 15 days, he has one home run, 11 RBIs and two steals in that span. He’s owned in just 35.5 percent of ESPN leagues.

Another name to look at is Brandon Nimmo of the New York Mets. Even with the addition of Jose Bautista, he is still getting playing time. Nimmo has a .318 batting average with three home runs, four RBIs and nine runs scored in the last two weeks. He’s owned in just 13.5 percent of leagues.

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The injuries have decimated a few fantasy teams this early in the season. Losing Acuna hurts those in both dynasty and re-draft leagues. Unless news breaks that he’s done for the season, you have to keep him rostered. A player of his caliber is hard to replace but there are options to fill in some gaps.

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